Power distribution companies (discoms) might soon get to levy a surcharge on commercial and industrial customers to mop up revenue to finance their purchase of renewable energy, with the electricity regulators agreeing on the idea.
In a recent meeting of Forum of Regulators (FOR), which comprises chairpersons of state and central electricity regulatory commissions, it was decided that discoms should be allowed to recover an additional renewable energy charge from these consumers.
The regulators have taken the decision in view of the reduction in share of renewable power purchased by discoms in various states.
The FOR plans to seek a legal opinion on whether such regulations can be issued under Section 62 (3) of the Electricity Act, 2003, which empowers the regulator to set different tariffs for various categories of consumers based on parameters like power and load factors.
?We are going to seek a legal opinion on this issue,? CERC chairman Pramod Deo, who is ex-officio FOR chairperson, told FE.
?Why not put more burden on industrial and commercial consumers? Their heavy power consumption causes damage to the environment,? he argued.
The FOR has been forced to consider this move as most of the discoms are reluctant to buy costly renewable power due to financial constraints. As a result, they are unable to meet their renewable energy purchase targets set under the national action plan on climate change (NAPCC).
The NAPCC, a strategy unveiled by the Indian government to reduce emissions,?sets target to increase the share of renewable energy in the overall grid power to 15% by 2020.?The action plan mandates increasing the share of renewable energy by 1% each year to the base-line of 5% fixed for the year 2009-10. The action plan also sets specific target for purchase of solar power. Discoms are required to purchase 0.25% of their electricity requirement from solar power plants by 2013 and 3% by 2022.