CII slams Gujarat, Karnataka curbing open access in power

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Tuesday voiced deep concern over the Gujarat and Karnataka governments' decision to disallow sale of electricity through the Open Access system.

"This decision could negatively impact operations of close to 200 industrial consumers," CII said in a statement here

Industrial electricity consumers of over 1 MW in Gujarat will now be required to buy power from within the state at Rs.6-7 per unit as opposed to the Rs.4-4.5 per unit charged by power exchanges.

In Karnataka, the choice of power generators to sell power to consumers outside the state has been curbed with the state government restricting power sales within the state boundaries.

"The decision challenges the principles of open access in the Electricity Act 2003," CII said.

"The consumer's choice to explore competitive electricity price thereby contributing to economic competitiveness of their products and services is an important aim of the Act," said Anil Sardana, chairman, CII National Committee on Power.

Currently, over 2,400 industrial and commercial consumers have been procuring electricity from the power exchanges leveraging open access, CII said.