Jaipur: In Rajasthan, people pay one of the highest rates for power.
Natural losses are located far from coal resources which resulted in the cost of purchasing Rs 4.81 per unit, the highest in the country together by rising, not the only reason.
Diskark loan interest expense is the other main reason.
In fact, at Rs 1.40 per power unit, the interest paid by the diskomy for its loan is the highest in this country.
Recently, the State Energy Council Board decided to get out of the high-power purchase agreement to reduce power costs.
Also a proposal from Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd.
to retire two units of super city Thermal Power Stations which have 220 megawatts delayed by the government.
In the last financial year, discounts use electricity that are cheaper than power exchanges and reduce purchasing costs of Rs 20 Paisa per unit but the impact of the burden of inheritance and natural losses is too large to continue the benefits of consumers.
But more strategies like that are being discussed to reduce power rates in the state which is one of the highest in this country.
TOI analyzes the cause of what causes a surge in power levels in the country and why it proves it is difficult for the government to provide assistance.
High power purchase costs: this contributes almost 80% with the total discount supply costs.
Conventional thermal power plants have used coal transported from outside the country and high logistics costs make expensive power plants.
The cost of purchasing Rajasthan power at Rs 4.81 KWh, which is around RS 0.08 KWh higher than the National average of Rs 4.73 KWh.
For other countries’ (not included) the cost of purchasing power under all India’s average.
In some states, it’s half compared to Rajasthan.
Flower costs stand out on discoms loans: From Unkundling of Discom in 2000 to 2011, there are only two revisions of the tariff.
While costs increase 71% during this period, income increases by 2%.
Discom must take short-term loans to fund this increase in costs.
After 2011, there were some revisions of the tariff but at that time the interest cost rose.
Revised non-timely tariff and no tariff increase in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 force a discount to fund losses through loans.
As a result, interest costs have risen and the highest in this country.
High depreciation costs, users who pay lower: Rajasthan is the largest country in this country with a very low population density.
So the cost of infrastructure per consumer is the highest in this country.
Infrastructure requires capital expenses and higher depreciation costs.
Also, Rajasthan has among the highest consumers in this country at a low level of tension (domestic and agriculture).
This results in higher technical and transformer losses.
Another reason: cheap hydro sources are less than 10% of the power portfolio in Rajasthan while other neighboring countries have a much higher share of low water power.
The state also faces a large variation between peak demand (14,000 MW) and the average demand (9,500mW) because discounts are responsible for paying fixed fees even if there is no power obtained from generation companies.
Third, even with the availability of low-cost renewable energy, discounts will continue to pay a fixed cost of a long-term agreement with a conventional generator.
Increase in time can avoid more hiking: from 2007-08 to 2013-14, supply costs almost double, but prices are almost half of the costs resulting in large losses on loan discounts and liabilities.
If a discount is able to revise their tariff regularly by 3-4% every year in line with inflation, it will avoid the need to increase large and sudden tariffs and the impact on consumers will be minimized.