If the proposal is cleared by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), there will be a noticeable drop in the electricity bills of consumers in many cities such as Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Amravati, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nashik. The state power distributor proposed the reduction before MERC on Wednesday.
MSEDCL collects reliability charges from consumers in these cities as payment for 24-hour uninterrupted power supply. Earlier, these cities would face certain hours of load shedding due to power shortfall in the state. However, MSEDCL buys additional power from the open market outside the state to meet the demand in these cities.
If the proposal is approved by the MERC, consumers in Pune will have to have to pay 11 paise per unit instead of 21 paise per unit charge. Similarly in Thane, the proposed new rate will be 15 paise per unit as opposed to the current charge of 28 paise. Consumers in Navi Mumbai currently pay 23 paise per unit; this will drop to 12 paise. In Amravati, the proposed rate is 46 paise (against 69 paise); in Nagpur it will be 38 paise instead of 51 and in Aurangabad the current rate of 75 paise will drop to 34 paise per unit. Consumers in Nashik, who earlier did not have to pay reliability rates, will now have to pay 25 paise per unit.
The MSEDCL proposal came before the MERC jury, which was hearing a petition suggesting changes in the reliability charge rates owing to reduction in the cost of power in the open market from Rs 6.75 per unit to Rs 5.50 per unit. MERC chairman V P Raja has to take a decision on the proposal, but has asked MSEDCL to introduce more transparency in the system by announcing the amount of power bought for the 24-hour supply scheme in these cities.
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