Hike in power tariff in Delhi unlikely before assembly polls

Delhi's power regulator DERC is unlikely to effect any hike in power tariff before the assembly polls though it has sought from private discoms details about cost of power purchase to take a final call on re-introducing a surcharge.
Sources in the power department said there was no possibility of any hike in electricity tariff even as private discoms have been pressing for it citing financial crunch.
DERC chairman P D Sudhakar, however, said the Commission had sought additional information about cost of power purchase from the discoms and a decision on the tariff hike will be taken after examining the details.

"We have asked the discoms to provide all details regarding cost of power purchase. We will take a decision on power tariff after examining their report," Sudhakar told PTI.
On Friday, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission withdrew a tariff hike of up to seven per cent less than 24 hours after announcing it, apparently coming under political pressure.
The DERC had hiked the tariff by re-introducing the power purchase adjustment cost (PPAC) surcharge to help the discoms meet the rise in power purchase cost.

Withdrawing the hike, the DERC had said it was rolled back "realising" that a number of power generation companies including NTPC, which supply electricity to the city, provided only part information about price of fuel such as coal and gas.

Asked why the additional information on pricing of fuel and cost of power production was not sought earlier, Sudhakar said the DERC had increased the tariff provisionally and it felt that the detail costing of the generating stations should have been analysed before hiking the rates.
While hiking the power tariff by up to 7.5 per cent for domestic consumers, the DERC in July had withdrawn PPAC of around 8 per cent till October.
The regulator had introduced PPAC in 2012 to help the private power distribution companies recover additional cost on account of increase in coal and gas prices.