Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission issues revised electricity tariff

The Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission issued Tariff orders on March 29, 2023, revising the tariffs of APGCL, AEGCL, SLDC and APDCL with effect from April 01, 2023. 

APDCL, APGCL, AEGCL and SLDC had filed petitions for approval of Truing Up for FY 2021-22, Annual Performance Review (APR) for FY 2022-23 and determination of Revised Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) and Tariff for FY 2023-24 in November 30, 2022.

APDCL in their petition had proposed a hike in fixed charges in the range of Rs 15 to Rs 75 per KW/ KVA per month. 

The Company also proposed an increase in energy charges including existing FPPPA charges (Fuel and Power Purchase Price Adjustment charges) by Re 1 to Rs 3 per unit for different categories of consumers.

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The Commission after taking into consideration the submissions made by the Petitioner, objections and suggestions received from respondents/stakeholders and all other relevant materials on record, decided that the prayer for the proposed hike is not acceptable. 

The Commission instead accorded approval to an overall decrease of around 1.2% in the tariff for FY 2023-24 over the tariff for FY 2022-23 including existing FPPPA charges. The Commission has reduced the energy charge rates for all categories ranging from 10 to 20 paise/unit.

However, for tariff rationalisation and to meet the overall revenue requirement, the Commission has marginally increased the Fixed Charges by Rs 10 per kW/ KVA per month for all categories.

The Average Cost of Supply (ACGS) for FY 2023-24 works out to Rs. 8.02 per kWh, as against APDCL's proposal of Rs. 9.52 per kWh. The ACOS for FY 2022-23 was Rs 8.14 per kWh.

The Commission while finalising the tariff has considered the Natural Gas price as US$ 2.90 per MMBTU, considering the declining trend of Gas prices in the international market and the average Gas price in the last 3 months of US $ 2.91 per MMBTU. The Commission has allowed pass-through of under-recovery FPPPA charges of Rs 457.09 Crore in FY 2022-23 in the revised tariff of FY 2023-24.

The Commission has taken utmost care to protect the interest of the consumers as well as the Utilities in arriving at its decision. The Commission has tried to keep the cross-subsidy between consumer categories within the limit of (+ -) 20%. The detailed Orders are available on the website of the Commission (http://aerc.gov.in)

During the tariff determination process, objections/suggestions from stakeholders were invited from the stakeholders on the petitions. A public hearing was also held on 28.02.2023. Altogether, seventeen (17) Respondents submitted their views and comments on the Tariff Petitions.

The Commission has approved an overall generation tariff of Rs 3.58 per kWh for FY 2023-24, based on the latest fuel costs. Transmission tariff of Rs. 0.57 per kWh and SLDC Charges of Rs. 106.84/MW/day has been approved for FY 2023-24.