Promoting green energy, affordable power to Delhiites DERC’s focus areas, says its chairman – EQ Mag Pro

The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is focusing on energy transition through various initiatives contributing to the Millennium Development Goal of United Nations and commitment of India towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, chairman of the panel Justice (retd) Shabihul Hasnain said on Sunday.

”The gradual movement from polluted conventional power (coal and gas) to cleaner energy matches with the Millennium Development Goal of United Nations and commitment of India towards Net Zero by 2070”, he told PTI.

There is no coal-based station right now operating in Delhi, thereby helping to provide pollution-free environment to the people of Delhi, Hasnain said.

Through various regulatory interventions, the commission has also been focusing to re-allocate costly coal/gas based stations from the power portfolio of Delhi distribution companies (discoms), he said.

”In this aspect, it is pertinent to highlight the progress under net metering regulations framed by the DERC which has played an important role towards promoting green power despite Delhi being a landlocked city and only possibility is rooftop space for solar, which too is limited.” ”Due to innovative regulatory mechanism, there is around 170 MW of Solar Rooftop Installation under net metering arrangement in Delhi. Also, the DERC has approved various power sale agreements/power purchase agreements from green sources (solar and wind) which will have dominating share in the power purchase portfolio in the near future,” he stated.

In July 2022, privatisation of power in Delhi will complete two decades. Apart from reliable power supply and improved customer care services, Delhi discoms with various regulatory interventions have drastically reduced aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses and have been able to provide affordable power with increasing share of green power to the people of Delhi, Hasnain said.

The DERC chairman asserted that there has been drastic reduction to the tune of around 50 per cent in AT&C loss levels since privatisation of power in the national capital.

Currently, Delhi discoms are operating with around 8 per cent of losses which is far below the national average, he noted.

”This is despite the fact that no grants have been received from the central government to Delhi discoms under UDAY or RDSS as has been received by other discoms operating in other states,” he said.

The Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojna or UDAY provides for the financial turnaround and revival of power discoms, while the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) aims to improve operational efficiencies and financial sustainability by providing result-linked financial assistance to discoms for strengthening of supply infrastructure based on meeting pre-qualifying criteria and achieving basic minimum benchmarks.

The DERC chairman stressed that such reduction in losses has been made realistic by faster adoption of various technologies like aerial B bunched cables, smart metering, GIS mapping of assets among others.

The benefit of such reduction in AT&C losses is being passed on to consumers of Delhi, he said.

The Delhi discoms have been demanding the DERC for ways to liquidate their regulatory assets (previously-incurred losses) over the years. ”The 8 per cent surcharge which is being levied to the consumers of Delhi in their electricity bills takes care about gradual liquidation of regulatory assets,” Hasnain said.

For the last six years, Delhi has not witnessed any increase in power tariff which discoms say impacts their sustainability.

The DERC chairman said the tariff schedule fixed by the commission ensures the recovery of all legitimate expenses of discoms.

”Any impact during the year due to increase in fuel cost, arrear bills of generation companies and transmission charges variation is being taken care by the DERC by providing appropriate Power Purchase Adjustment Charges (PPAC),” he said.

The consumers keep on receiving 24 x 7 affordable, quality and green power and discoms recovering the legitimate expense in supply of such power is a win-win situation for all stakeholders and the DERC through its various regulatory interventions is working towards this goal, he said.

Energy storage to mitigate the infirm nature of renewables, meeting technical challenges in setting up charging stations during faster adoption of electric vehicles are some of the major future plans of the DERC, he said.

The DERC recently bagged the prestigious SKOCH Silver Award in the ”Power & Energy” category, he said, adding that the achievement will motivate the team at the commission to adhere to the vision of supplying round-the-clock affordable power to Delhiites focusing sustainable environment.

Source : PTI