Following Maharashtra government?s recent directive to Tata Power to continue supplying 500 mega watt to Reliance Infra (Rel Infra), the Tata group company has placed a proposal to the state seeking permission to take over a part of the distribution network, comprising around 2.8 lakh residential consumers of R-Infra. The proposed takeover will comprise regions of Malad and Borivli in the northern part of Mumbai, consuming around 180 mw of power.
Tata Power?s executive director (finance) S Ramakrishnan said the state government?s decision to ask Tata Power to supply 500 mw to R-Infra has curtailed the fundamental right of Tata Power under EA 2003 to supply power to a customer of its choice. ?R-Infra has not signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Tata Power for years, despite the regulator?s directions,? he said. Tata Power had notified R-Infra over nine months back that the non-contractual 500 mw being supplied to them will cease from April 1, 2010, as its own customer base is growing. ?Tata Power is not legally obliged to supply power, as there is no PPA between the two companies,? he added.
Stating that the government should now hand over customers to a ?responsible licensee,? S Padmanabhan, executive director (operations) of Tata Power, said the company had the requisite capacity with itself to meet the growing need of distribution. Around 30,000 consumers have already shifted to Tata Power since November 2009. ?Tata Power is willing to take over some parts of the distribution network, including distribution sub-station, consumer sub-station, lines and metres at book value,? he said.
?About 2.8 lakh consumers who could be transferred to Tata Power will get power supply at a significantly lower tariff of Rs 1.3 per unit, applicable to 0 to 100 units per month category and Rs 2.7 per unit applicable to 100 to 300 units per month category for Tata Power, which will be about Re 0.42 to Rs 1.32 per unit lower than what they are currently paying R-Infra,? the company said in a media presentation.