You could soon buy your way out of darkness

MUMBAI: Cities in Maharashtra will soon have a choice: face load shedding or pay more for round the clock electricity supply. The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), the power watchdog, and the state power utility MahaVitaran are working on a proposal to offer uninterrupted power supply to cities, provided consumers are willing to shell out more for it.

Buoyed by the recent success in Pune, where the captive generation capacity of industries around the city is being utilised to mitigate load shedding, the regulator is looking at similar options for other cities across the state.

According to the plan, the state power company will divert its most expensive power to a city which is willing to bear the extra cost for continuous power supply.

“Currently, we buy power at rates ranging from Rs 4 per unit to Rs 7 per unit from various agencies, with a preference for low-cost power. We charge at average rates even though we pay more for certain supply.

In the proposed system, we will buy expensive power and will provide it only to those areas where the consumers are willing to pay more,” a top officer from the energy department told ET. With the proposal having come from the regulator, the power distribution company expects no hurdles in getting the new method cleared.

To make it effective, MERC will conduct a public hearing, while inviting objections and suggestions from different quarters in the concerned cities. “We will follow the Pune model,” an official associated with the exercise said.

In Pune, MERC held a series of public hearings before it allowed the CII to sell excess electricity available with its members to MahaVitaran to supply exclusively to Puneites.

In return, the MERC allowed MahaVitaran to collect an additional reliability charge of 0.42 paise per kwh from Pune’s urban consumers, excluding households consuming up to 300 units a month.

Pune was the first city in the country to go in for a public-private partnership to lighten load shedding by making use of the captive power plants. However, considering that every city may not have sufficient captive capacity, the MERC is trying to widen the scope of the Pune model.

“The state utility avoids buying expensive power for fear of failing to recover the actual cost. The proposed plan assures it of returns, helping relieve load shedding in some areas,” an official said. Though the current monsoon has lessened the demand for power supply, the state will face a shortfall of 3,000-4,500 MW, once rains fade away.