Gujarat: Power to cost more as Torrent Power, GUVNL hike fuel surcharge

Get ready to pay more for power as Torrent Power, as well as the four public distribution companies, have hiked fuel surcharge for the coming quarter. While Torrent has hiked the surcharge by 23 paise per unit, the other discoms have increased it by 10 paise.

Torrent, which supplies electricity in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Surat, revised Fuel and Power Purchase Price Adjustment (FPPPA) charge for the Oct-Dec quarter, from Rs 1.86 per unit to Rs 2.09 per unit. The company, which caters to over 20 lakh consumers, said in a communication to Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission that in addition to base FPPPA of Rs 1.23 per unit, recoverable FPPPA for the second quarter of 2018-19 worked out at Rs 1.15 per unit.

"Torrent has commenced billing at FPPPA rate of Rs 2.09 per unit from October in accordance with directions of the Commission," it said. The increase of 23 paise in FPPPA includes partial recovery of past under-recoveries. An official attributed the hike in the surcharge to increase in fuel prices as well as huge depreciation in rupee in the past few months. The four government power discoms, viz. DGVCL, UGVCL, MGVCL and PGVCL, have also hiked the surcharge by 10 paise. From Rs 1.61 per unit in the second quarter, it has gone up to Rs 1.71 for October-December quarter. They had lowered the FPPPA charge by 2 paise in last quarter.

Energy expert KK Bajaj said that the higher surcharge would put an additional burden of Rs184 crore on consumers. He said that power purchase cost of GUVNL had shot up from Rs 4.33 per unit to Rs 4.51 per unit in Jul-Sept quarter due to discontinuation of supply by private players.