Cost cutting one option to reduce electricity cost in Capital, suggests Rajiv Kakadia

Commenting on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's promise to cut electricity costs by 50 percent, power expert Rajiv Kakadia on Saturday said that there is a lot of scope to cut down electricity costs in Delhi but only within a time of two years.

"There is a lot of scope to drastically cut down electricity cost by a lot of ways only if we follow the set procedures. There needs to be a lot of study. Old files have to be dug out. We have to go into the power purchase mechanism, auditing, competition in the market and many more small factors," said Kakadia.

"But it can be done only if they are given a time of two to three years. So, the public has to be patient about it and they have to give them a time that extends beyond 6-7 months," he said.

"He further said that half of Delhi can benefit a cost cutting of 25-40 percent if they are provided with bus bars along with their meters.

"Without touching the tariff, half of Delhi can get rid of the fast running meters. For that, the AAP do not have to get the meters tested, as it would not help. They just have to make sure that bus bars are provided to avoid residual backflow," he said.

"A lot of the meters in Delhi do not have bus bars, which leads to fast running of the meters. Although, the Electricity Act says it's compulsory, nothing has been done about it by the Congress government," he said.

"In fact the production cost of electricity used to be higher but has been going down since 2009," he added.

"It is now being sold for as cheap as two rupees in Delhi and for four rupees in Uttar Pradesh," he said.