The news regarding the proposed hike in power tariff has come as a shocker for Sharad Kerkar, a home maker from Margao. Her husband lost his job during the pandemic, after which he was to forced work as a security guard at a residential society. Already finding it difficult to manage her home, the six per cent hike in power rates will surely break her back.
“My husband lost his job during Covid pandemic. Now he works as a security guard in a residential building and earns just enough salary for two meals. We have been adjusting with electricity bills for the last two years. And now if the electricity bills increase, it is going to have an adverse effect on our lives,” Kerkar said.
“Domestic consumers have to be given relief from this hike in power tariff as the cost of living has shot up a lot in recent times. We won’t be able to manage any more rise in cost of living,” she added.
Ratna Pujari, a home maker from Calapur said, “My husband is working overtime to meet the ends, to provide good education and nourishment to our children. Only a homemaker knows the pains of managing the expenses of a family.”
“As a common lower middle-class citizen, I expect the Electricity Department to be a little considerate towards people like us while raising the power rates,” she said.
Abhijit Patil, a resident of Panjim, said that already the price of essential items like vegetables, edible oil, milk, petrol and gas cylinders is already touching the roof. At such a time, the common people won’t be able to bear the blow of power tariff hike.
“The prices of essentials are touching the roof, but our income is stagnant. This has already burnt our pockets. Now if the power rates are also hiked, it will become very difficult for us to make two ends meet,” he said.
Sachin Bandodkar, transport carrier driver from Daovrlim said, “Domestic consumers are using electricity, not to make money but for their daily living. Taxing the weaker sections of the society is going to burden them even
further,” he said.
Bandodkar said that the government must take immediate measures to generate power locally from off-grid solutions so that the dependency of the State on purchasing power from the grid reduces.
Eddie Tavares, a domestic power consumer, said, “Don’t squeeze the domestic consumers. Stop the power leakage. The engineers have to plug the transmission and distribution losses and save money, before putting the burden on consumers.”
Suresh Babu, an industry representative said, “for the last two years, we have seen a hike in the landing cost of electricity by 20 per cent. kVAH billing has cost us 22 paisa hike per unit in recent times and to add to the woes, the incentives which industries got too have disappeared from the bills.”
“Fuel and Power Purchase Cost Adjustment Formula (FPPCA) has gone up by 1.25 paise. This proposed hike has to be withdrawn. Most industries are limping back to normalcy from Covid and won’t be able to take more beating,” he added.
Gerrad D’Mello, representative of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI), said, “Estimates and actual are too far away from targets. Power demand is much higher and will be doubling in the next 10 years. But at the same time, power reliability is poor. We have had 800 hours of no power in the last financial year,” he said.
The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) had convened a public hearing in Panjim recently over the six per cent power tariff hike proposed by the EDG.
The EDG had filed a petition for approval of Annual Performance Report (APR) for financial year 2022-2023, Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) for 2023-2024 and tariff proposal for the year 2023-2024.
The hike was proposed to fill in for the revenue gap of Rs 483.65 crore. Even after government funding and tariff hike, the EDG has projected a revenue gap of nearly Rs 134.96 crore for the FY 2023-24.
The EDG justified the increase in rates by saying that while there has been a sharp rise in power purchase cost, the demand for electricity has also shot up due to tourism and new infrastructure projects like the Mopa International Airport.
The Electricity Department of Goa caters 6.89 lakh consumers (as on September 30, 2022) with an annual energy consumption of approximately 4009 MU for Fiscal year (FY) 2021-22. The peak demand of Goa during FY 2021-22 was around 704 Mega Watt (MW) (March 2022).
As per the Central Electricity Authority’s Load generation Balance (CEA LGBR) report for FY 2021-22, the energy deficit and the peak deficit for the State of Goa were 0.00% (NIL) and 0.00% (NIL) respectively. The peak demand in FY 2022-23 (April to September) recorded in April was 726 MW.
EDG is currently receiving 418 MW of power from the Western Region (WR) and 100 MW from the Southern Region (SR). The total firm allocation of power from the central sector is approximately 518 MW.
In addition, the department also purchases power from co-generation stations within the state and short-term power procurement from the market, traders, Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price (DEEP) portal. DEEP is an e-Bidding and e-Reverse auction portal for procuring short-term power by power distribution companies.
Chief Electrical Engineer, Stephen D’Souza while justifying the hike in power tariff, said, “We understand that the sector needs lots of improvement. Increase in tariff is the need of the hour if the quality of living has to improve. We are still Rs 348 crore away from breaking even and the need of the hour is to increase the tariff. The tariff rates have been frozen for the last four years.”
The Chief Engineer, while justifying the tariff rise said, “The total power purchase cost is Rs 2013.94 crores for 4982 MU for the upcoming year. We went through a huge challenge during March, April and May last year due to the coal crisis. The demand for power too has increased after Covid.”
“The load, demand and consumption of Goa have increased. We are going to witness almost 150 MW load growth due to the northern coastal belt and the New Manohar International Airport demand. We may have to go for energy exchange and short term power purchase also,” D’Souza added.
“With the existing tariff, we will get a revenue gap of Rs 483.65 crore. By introducing the hike, we will get additional revenue of Rs 134.96 crore which leaves us with a revenue gap of Rs 348.69 crores which the department expects to be supported by the government through budgetary allocations,” he added.
D’Souza said that the government of Goa has maintained the same tariff of 2018-19 due to the Covid 19 pandemic. From 2019 to 2022, there was no tariff hike. “The government of Goa bore the tariff hike,” D’Souza informed.
“There are three transformers to be installed and commissioned which will solve the power deficiency problem of Industries. Robust infrastructure is being planned to improve efficiency and financial viability of distribution,” Chief Engineer D’Souza informed.
“I know consumers are concerned with the tariff rise. However, we request them to understand the EDG’s compulsions as this sector requires improvement and priority, if all the sectors have to improve. We have invested heavily in the distribution of power across Goa,” he said.
Meanwhile, the JERC Member Jyoti Prasad said, “We have noted down the concerns of the public. We have given time to the Electricity Department to reply to these concerns and send the petition for approval to the JERC within the stipulated time.”
