Gridco, public oppose ATE's order at OERC hearing

Officials of state owned Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco), general public and activists have voiced stiff opposition to the order of Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE) on the issue of cross subsidy burden during public hearing conducted by the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).

Only a few industry associations backed the implementation of the tribunal's order.

The OERC, meanwhile, has reserved its verdict on the issue. The state power tariff regulator was given the November 30 deadline by the apex court to dispose of the matter.

"Gridco as well as the general public and some people's activists strongly opposed the implementation of ATE's order stating that it would push up cost of power for the domestic consumers and hurt collection for distribution companies. Only a few industry associations came out in favour of the tribunal's order", said a top Gridco official.

"The Supreme Court had asked the OERC to decide anything on the issue only after hearing all the stakeholders. In any case, the order of the ATE is not binding on the OERC", he added.

Acting on the directive of the Supreme Court, the OERC had taken up public hearing on the issue of cross subsidy burden in power tariff on November 24-25.Upholding an order of ATE, the apex court on September 30, had directed OERC to calculate cross subsidy on the basis of cost of power supply to the consumers.

The appellate tribunal in its order dated May 30 this year had held that the methodology used by OERC for determination of cross subsidy was not in accordance with the law and it had set aaside the tariff order passed by the commission.

"The State Commission has expressed difficulties in determining cost of supply in view of non-availability of metering data and segregation of the network costs. In our opinion, it will not be prudent to wait indefinitely for availability of entire data and it would be advisable to initiate a simple formulation which could take into account the major cost elements", the tribunal had stated in its order.

The OERC was directed to determine voltage-wise cost of supply and the cross subsidy was to be calculated on the basis of cost of power supply to the consumer category.

The tribunal had asked the state commission not to increase cross subsidy but to reduce it gradually.

The appellants being aggrieved over the methodology adopted by the state commission while calculating the cross subsidy had contested the commission's order in the appellate tribunal.

The appellants had complained that cross subsidy was calculated by OERC without taking into account cost of supply to high-tension power consumers.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the order of OERC was filed in the Orissa High Court. The High Court had stayed the revision for domestic consumers while allowing the hike for other categories of consumers.