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Tariff: To be at least 20% higher during busy hours

City residents may soon have to pay more for electricity consumed during peak hours as the proposal has been mooted by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Committee (JERC) in draft regulations for Multi Year Distribution Tariff that has been prepared. As per the proposal,the tariff will vary during different parts of the day.

At present,the electricity department considers the time between 11 pm and 7 am as an off peak period; the time between 7 am and 10 am is the morning peak; 10 am to 4 pm is full peak; and 4 pm to 11 pm is the evening peak.

Once the regulations are approved,however,the peak and off peak hours during the seasons would be notified by State Load Despatch Centre in advance.

Chandigarh has around 2.2 lakh electricity connections. As per the regulation,the time of day tariff would be structured across three time slabs to denote normal,peak and off-peak periods. The time-periods would vary according to different seasons of the year: summer,winter and monsoon.

The peak tariff would be 20 to 30 per cent higher than the normal tariff and the off-peak tariff would be priced 15 to 20 per cent lower than the normal tariff.

To implement the proposal,separate meters – time of day meters – will be installed; they will record electricity consumption for different hours as opposed to the present electronic meters that only allow billing on number of units consumed.

When the new system is installed,the billing will be based on consumption in the three time slabs.

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The time of day tariff would be introduced in phased manner. In the first phase it would be compulsory for HT (high tension) consumers,in phase II for LT (low tension) consumers consuming more than 25 kilo watt and in the third phase for LT consumers consuming more than 10 KW.

There is a vast variation in the amount of energy consumed in different parts of the day. It can range from 170 MW to 250 MW,while the peak demand touches 350 MW as well. It is expected that the decision will reduce the peak demand. Once the regulation is approved,the electricity meters would have to be replaced and new ones installed, Superintending Engineer (Electricity) M P Singh said.

The regulation further stipulates that the decision on tariff hike would be taken for three years. At present,the electricity department prepares a proposal for tariff hike every year following which the hike comes into force. It is now proposed that instead of repeating the exercise every year,it would be done once in three years.

This year the proposal of the electricity department for hike in tariff was rejected by JERC. The UT Electricity department has been asked to prepare a fresh proposal after proper auditing.

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