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Time of India
20-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Fixed power charges hiked 76% for industries in Gurgaon
Gurgaon: Haryana discoms have increased the monthly fixed charges for industries by 76% even as the industry association has opposed the move, saying it could severely damage Haryana's industrial competitiveness, particularly impacting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Maintaining that "industry cannot be penalised for inefficiencies it did not create," it has demanded the formation of a joint task force (JTF) to review the tariff order to provide relief to MSMEs. Fixed charges for industry increased from Rs 165 per kVA per month to Rs 290 per kVA per month, an increase of Rs 125 per kVA per month. With the increase in fixed charges, small enterprises with a 100 kVA sanctioned load face an increase of Rs 15,500 per month, while mid-sized firms could see their energy bills rise by over Rs 40,000 monthly. The hike in tariff and fixed charges will total an additional burden on the state's industry, as calculated by the industry association, exceeding Rs 2,100 crore annually — Rs 1,195 crore under DHBVN and an estimated Rs 950 crore under UHBVN. The industry pointed out that in March 2021, both discoms (DHBVN and UHBVN) reported a combined profit of around Rs 800 crore. However, in the latest submission before Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, both the discoms showed a cumulative loss of around Rs 4,800 crore — DHBVN reported a loss of Rs 2,800 crore and UHBVN reported a loss of Rs 2,000 crore. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Progressive Federation of Trade & Industry (PFTI) chairman Deepak Maini said, "This turnaround from profit to loss in just four years comes despite the utilities consistently reporting a downward trend of AT&C losses." He said no adequate public reasoning or audit disclosure has been made available to justify this deterioration. They alleged that figures related to AT&C (aggregate technical & commercial) losses, particularly for the domestic category, may have been over-optimistically reported, possibly masking inefficiencies or misreporting trends over time. "Industry cannot be penalised for all this," Maini said. Chairman of the power committee of PFTI Sanjeev Chopra said for the industry, the power tariff was increased by Rs 0.30 per unit and fixed charges were increased by Rs 125 per kVA per month. The small industry with 100 kVA and consumption of 10,000 units will pay around Rs 15,500 extra per month. Similarly, a medium-sized enterprise with a 100 kVA load and monthly consumption of 1 lakh units will pay around Rs 42,500 additional amount per month as electricity charges. Chopra said, "Smaller industries are now paying more per unit than large ones, despite having lower usage, an unintended punishment for size and scale." The industry association said the discoms need to change the method of billing. In the past, billing was done on a kWh basis and industries were not incentivised to maintain capacitor banks. This led to substantial reactive power losses.
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Green energy boost: Haryana's solar power generation sees growth
Gurgaon: The solar-powered water pumps are turning out to be real game changers. The solarisation of irrigation pumps in Haryana is transforming the state towards sustainable energy and reducing its dependence on non-renewable sources of energy, at least in the field of agriculture. The state developed a capacity to generate around 1,300 MW of power from solar panels installed at homes and agricultural fields to light up homes and power the tubewells. Out of this, 822 MW comes from solar-powered water pumps. Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) transformed the lives of farmers by installing over 154,000 solar water pumps, each rated up to 10 BHP. An official of the energy department of Haryana said, "These pumps not only helped farmers reduce their dependency on conventional power but also decreased the overall power demand by an astounding 822.3 MW." The Centre and state govt are providing subsidies to the farmers to install solar power irrigation pumps. This helps the farmers as they don't have to depend on grid power supply for irrigation, while the govt saves lots of money — discoms purchase power at a high rate and farmers are given power at a very subsidised rate for two power distribution companies in Haryana — Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) — purchase power for the farm sector at Rs 7.35 per unit. But farmers only pay 10 paise per unit due to a govt subsidy. This means the govt absorbs the difference, which is a significant portion of the total cost. The subsidy is around Rs 6,781 crore, covering the difference between the cost of Rs 6,841 crore and the revenue of Rs 123 crore from the subsidised tariff.A discom official said, "In the rural area, the main power consumption comes from irrigation tubewells and the tariff for this segment is almost nil due to govt subsidy." Ramavtar Yadav, a farmer from Jhajjar, who installed a solar power irrigation pump in his field in 2024, said more than the cost of electricity, it is more convenient. Ramavtar said, "Due to govt subsidy, the cost of power consumption was not an issue, but we faced problems with unreliable supply. We used to get supply only for limited hours for irrigation pumps and we planned everything accordingly. With the solar power pumps, we can run it as per our convenience."Now, Yadav is not dependent on grid supply, which is a big the other hand, rooftop solar panels have not made much progress, especially in south Haryana. UHBVN led the charge by helping install over 24,500 rooftop solar systems across homes and buildings, generating an impressive 492.1 MWp of clean energy. However, DHBVN contributed by facilitating only around 5,700 rooftop installations, adding another 25.06 MWp to the state's solar peak power demand of the state is on the rise and this summer, the peak demand is expected to cross 15,000 MW. The state generates only around 5,000 MW of power, while the rest of the demand is met through a series of long-term and short-term power purchases from multiple sources.
