TEC had asked BSES to pay over Rs 14 crore as standby charges, instead of Rs 3.50 crore in December last. Similarly, demand charges were raised to over Rs 12 crore from Rs 10 crore. But BSES argues that TEC cannot raise charges unilaterally.

According to BSES, the present standby and demand charges payable to TEC were determined by a tripartite agreement between TEC, BSES and the state government last year, and any change has to be negotiated by all theconcerned parties. BSES also argues that TEC has built the additional burden into the power tariff. TEC had increased the annual standby charges for BSES by four times to Rs 181.5 crore from Rs 42 crore. The demand charges were hiked to Rs 200/kva per month from Rs 170 crore.

MSEB, with whom TEC has a power supply agreement in case of an interruption in its own supply, increased the charge on this standby facility to Rs 363 crore from Rs 297 crore.

This is not the first time that the two power utilities, BSES and TEC have clashed on tariffs, standby and demand charges. Earlier, these issues had been resolved through state intervention.

Besides billing, BSES and TEC are also in dispute over the issue of distribution area and consumer profile. TEC last year started poaching on BSES's customer base. The former is licenced to supply electricity to consumers who require 1,000 kva, a segment catered to by BSES for many years.