Sigh of relief, no power tariff hike in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, April 20

The UT Engineering Department has submitted a proposal for not increasing the power tariff for the 2022-23 fiscal to the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC).

The submission was made in the annual revenue requirement and tariff proposal for 2022-23 to the JERC. The department proposed to continue the existing tariff as approved by commission for 2021-22 on March 30, 2021.

On account of being revenue surplus, the JERC had approved a reduction in the tariff for all categories of more than 2.34 lakh electricity consumers for 2021-22.

The department submitted that the electricity wing of the UT did not have any generation capacity of its own and relied entirely on the allocation of power from central generating stations such as the NTPC, NHPC, BBMB, NPCIL, SJVNL and the APCPL.

On distribution loss, it was submitted that the department had been working hard to reduce its distribution losses.The actual distribution losses for 2020-21 were 13.81 per cent, the department said.

It also submitted projections with regard to the number of consumers on the basis of “past actuals”. The UT has projected nearly 2.38 lakh total consumers, including 2.04 lakh domestic and 28,521 non-domestic, for 2022-23.