Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
Uttarakhand government has decided to introduce time-of-day power tariffs for its 15.87 lakh electricity consumers. It will be the first state in the country to implement this anti-consumer measure, decided by the central government. Under the new system, power rates will be divided into three slots, with prices varying accordingly. Daytime hours will have the cheapest tariffs, while night time hours will have the highest rates.
Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd managing director said, “The idea is to encourage people to use electricity judiciously.” He further said, “This initiative promotes judicious energy consumption, benefiting both consumers and the environment.”
The claim that it will benefit consumers is to only justify the introduction of the time-of-day power tariff system which actually is meant for benefit of power distribution companies. The bill of consumers will actually go up as the tariff will be the highest in evening and night when maximum power is consumed.
The reason for introducing differential pricing is to help private solar power generating companies to create demand for power generated by them during the day-time. It will help distribution company to recover higher price when the consumption is the highest. The cost of producing power from solar energy during the day is significantly lower. UPCL purchases solar power at Rs 2-2.5 per unit whereas at night, power supply comes from coal and gas based generating plants and costs Rs 7-8 per unit. So far distribution companies used to charge a weighted average price for power.
The day-time tariff is expected to be only 10-20% lower whereas the cost of solar power is one-third of night power. Time of day tariff will allow recovery of full cost of expensive night power from consumers. So, the real beneficiary will be the distribution company and not consumers.
Time-of-day tariff system is not in the interest of people and must be opposed.