Higher Revenue Gap Likely: Aperc Staff

APTransco is likely to end up with a revenue gap of Rs 1,870 crore during the next financial year as against its own projection of Rs 1,501 crore, according to an analysis made by the staff of Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC).

Making a detailed presentation of the analysis, Geeta Gowri, the director (tariff) of APERC, said that higher revenue gap would be on account of higher power purchases and O&M costs, and lower revenue from sale of power and non-tariff income.

While Transco projected power purchase cost at the rate of Rs 1.79 per unit, the APERC staff estimated that it would be Rs 1.89 due to less than projected level of hydel power availability, the assessment of which is based on the hydrological data of the past years.

 

CPI state general secretary, S Sudhakar Reddy felt the need to review all the power purchase agreements (PPAs) of private power projects, clear high-cost World Bank loans, do away with purchases from the high-cost non-conventional energy sources and increase power purchases from NTPC and APGPCL.

K P Rao, the former member of Central Electricity Authority (CEA), said that level-playing field was not provided for APGenco and it did not receive funds in time for the energy supplied to Transco.

Pointing out that the state government was responsible for increase in the cost of power generated by APGenco, because of the pension liabilities imposed on it, he appealed to APERC to ensure that there was no unreasonable burden on Genco and that it would get reasonable return.

He found fault with Transco which proposed a fixed charge of Rs 13 crore for LVS Power Project under the provisions of the deemed power generation.

Supply of power at concessional price for ferro alloy units, under the pretext that they are power-intensive, is not at all justifiable, he observed.