The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : KERC chief cautions ESCOMs on orders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

KERC chief cautions ESCOMs on orders

Staff Reporter

The charge is KPTCL and ESCOMs are not implementing the orders

Bangalore: Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) chairman K.P. Pandey on Monday warned that he would seek the High Court's intervention to force the Government as well as the energy supplying companies (ESCOMs) to implement the commission's orders if they continue to ignore them.

Speaking to presspersons after the public hearing on KPTCL's ERC (Expected Revenue from Charges), Mr. Pandey cited several instances where the KERC orders have not been implemented by KPTCL and the ESCOMs.

"We are seriously contemplating the move. If we do decide to seek the intervention of the High Court, we will take it up under Writ of Mandamus," he said.

He also said that with the State receiving good rainfall over the past two years, substantial power generation was from the hydel power projects.

"Power generation through hydel sources is cost effective and the benefit earned from this has not been transferred to the consumers," he charged.

The present power tariff was fixed in 2004, which was a distress year. The KERC fixed the tariff based on the data made available to it by KPTCL and ESCOMs.

"The KERC will revalidate the ERC filed by the ESCOMs if they do not file any tariff petition. We will have no option but to take suo motu action to reduce the tariff if there is any surplus revenue," he said.

The KPTCL had invited objections to its ERC for 2008-10 and KERC had organised a public hearing for the same.

Several consumer bodies participated in the hearing. Satyanarayana Udupa of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Udupi, alleged that KPTCL had made proposals to invest huge sums in projects that were yet to be approved.

In its ERC, KPTCL proposed to invest Rs. 160 crore to draw power from the Nagarjuna Power Project, which is still in the conceptual stage.

The KPTCL has failed in utilising the funds allotted to it. Earlier, it had sought KERC's permission to invest Rs. 2,700 crore to improve infrastructure.

However, KERC approved an investment of Rs. 1,800 crore, of which only Rs. 865 crore had been utilised.

He alleged that though KPTCL was spending huge sums on improving infrastructure, it had failed to reduce the transmission loss, which showed its inefficiency.

Mr. Pandey pulled up KPTCL for lagging behind in completing various projects undertaken, which included improving the distribution system.

Govindappa, retired chief engineer of the erstwhile Karnataka Electricity Board, said that KPTCL was largely depending on its consultants to formulate the ERC. "Before the KEB corporatised and KPTCL and ESCOMs were formed, the transmission and distribution loss was 22 per cent. Now it has increased to 36 per cent. All this only proves that the proposed ERC should not be approved," he said.

KPTCL will present its reply on Tuesday to all the objections and submissions regarding the ERC.

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