Power regulator revokes 50% fine

APERC rejects arguments by the discoms

The APERC (Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission) revoked 50 per cent of penalty charges that were imposed last year on commercial as well as industrial consumers as part of the Restriction and Control (R&C) measures. Though the state discoms challenged the APERC decision, the regulatory body was not impressed. In fact, the APERC called it an attempt by the discoms to “enrich themselves at the cost of consumers.”

The APERC had revoked the penalty in an order issued on Thursday, on the grounds that the discoms did not give any choice to the consumers for availing supply depending on their requirement and had unilaterally decided the mode of supply.

The order has come as a relief and also as a ray of hope for the sector which can be shielded from similar R&C measures this year.

The petition was made by more than 4,000 industries, individually as well as under various industry bodies. The penalty amount was between `1 lakh to `20 lakh, depending on the industry size, estimated to run up to `10 crore across the state.

The power-intensive industrial and commercial sector had suffered up to three days of power holidays and peak hour cuts last year following which R&C measures were imposed twice during the year.

Consumers who had drawn more power than what was permitted in the R&C measures were subjected to very high penalty charges ranging five to seven times the actual cost of the power drawn. As a result, a number of representations were made to the APERC by industrial bodies complaining that they had been wrongly penalised.

The APERC, in its order, discounted the discoms’ argument that they had not implemented the option to disconnect power saying that it was baseless to assume that consumers would have drawn less power due to the R&C measures imposed.

The commission’s new order maintained that discoms were trying to squeeze money in the name of penalties.

The order reads: “R&C measures have been imposed by the commission to instill grid discipline and to ensure equitable distribution of available power among differ. R&C orders issued by the Commission require the petitioners to issue notices warning the consequences of violation. Rather than maintaining grid discipline, petitioners are viewing R&C penalties as a source of income, which is enriching themselves at the cost of consumers.”