Power stepping into interconnect regime

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) in its concept paper on introduction of open access transmission "" a prerequisite under the Electricity Act, 2003 "" has suggested two methods for calculation of inter-state transmission charges: an incremental postage stamp method and a contracted path method.

Under the incremental postage stamp method, the country will be divided into zones of 100 square km and a postage stamp rate ""a fixed charge per unit of energy transmitted within a particular zone "" will be prescribed.

The wheeling charge (in Rs/MW/zone/duration), which is the transmission cost of traversing 100 circuit km, will be decided by counting the distance between two points horizontally and vertically to arrive at the number of zones, with one stamp standing for each zone. The stamp value will be split among the utilities owning transmission networks in each zone. The CERC will specify the ceiling rates for the stamps.

The alternative scheme, the contracted path method, requires the length of the path to be calculated by assessing the shortest route of transmission lines capable of carrying the contracted power between two points.

While the postage stamp pricing is practical, a drawback is the method is insensitive to distance. The contracted path method is, however, distance sensitive but tends to become imaginary in complex networks with many parallel paths. At present, the state electricity boards pool transmission service charges for the network in a region.

Transmission service providers will have to declare transmission service charge for various types of services within the ceiling set by the CERC. In addition, open access customers will also be required to pay scheduling and system operation charges.

After telecom, it's power

Country to be divided into zones of 100 square km each

A fixed charge per unit of energy transmitted within a particular zone, called "postage stamp" rate, will be decided by CERC

Transmission charge to be decided by counting zones between two points. One "stamp" to signify rate for transmitting power across one zone

The value of stamps to be split between utilities having their transmission network in each zone