Ap Told To Open Lc To Clear Power Dues

CEA has taken a stern attitude and made it clear that export of power from the eastern region to Andhra Pradesh will be stopped unless its instructions are followed.

Power exporters in the eastern region have decided to instal time-of-the-day meters to apply differential tariff rates for exports. The export tariff will be divided into three categories - peak rake, normal rate and off-peak rate. Andhra Pradesh draws about 2.5 million units of electrical energy a day from the eastern region, which is valued at Rs 8 crore a month. Hence, the CEA has instructed APSEB to open a letter of credit for Rs 8 crore in favour of the Power Grid Corporation which carries the power to Andhra Pradesh.

 

Since the state has piled up arrears of Rs 31 crore, CEA has also instructed APSEB to make a monthly payment of Rs 10 crore in the next three months to clear the dues.

The CEA initiative will actually help power agencies in the eastern region clear up their dues to the National Thermal Power Corporation. The agencies export through PowerGrid Corporation the surplus from their quota of NTPC power allocated to them under a sharing formula. If Andhra Pradesh makes the payment, it will then go to NTPC.

Besides being forced to open a letter of credit and clear up arrears, Andhra Pradesh will also be subjected to a formula of differential tariff structure which will push up its total imported energy bill. Against the present flat rate of Rs 1.54 a unit including the cost of generation and transmission, the new normal rate will be Rs 1.94. The off-peak rate will remain at Rs 1.54. But, the peak rate is being hiked to Rs 2.30.

However, it has also been decided that power agencies in the eastern region will also pay the same differential rate of tariff if they import power from Andhra Pradesh.

Though a common tariff structure for import and export of power between the eastern region and Andhra Pradesh sounds fair, the latter is unlikely to be in a position to export power in the near future.

Nor are the power agencies in the eastern region expected to have any need to import power from outside the region.

The time-of-the-day meters are being installed at the moment and the exact date for introduction of the differential tariff rates will be notified shortly.