SERC moots price signals, energy conservation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Appropriate ‘price signals’ and stringent energy conservation measures can help control power consumption in the state, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission has said. The Commission has also asked the board to finalise long-term contracts for power purchase and book transmission corridors in advance to reduce power restrictions in the ensuing months.The Commission, passing orders on Saturday on the KSEB’s petition on Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) and Revenue from Charges (ERC) for the 2012-2013 fiscal, has asked the KSEB to submit detailed proposals on energy conservation by August 31, 2012, as part of this.The Commission urged the KSEB to extend Time of Day (ToD) metering to more LT categories on the expectation that pricing of electricity based on time of use can help hold consumption to manageable levels.‘’By appropriate price signals, the Commission expects that unrestrained and luxurious consumption will come down. It is also generally agreed that major industrial consumers have no incentive for reducing specific energy consumption due to comparatively low tariffs. This situation has to change,’’ the Commission noted. Finding fault with the demand side management of the KSEB, the commission said that state-run agencies such as the Energy Management Centre (EMC) may be roped in for preparing the energy conservation proposal. In Saturday’s order, the Commission had rejected a KSEB proposal for year-round power regulations.  The KSEB had originally estimated 6.34 per cent increase in consumption during the current fiscal, but it revised the estimates to 9.62 per cent. The Commission has pointed out that energy sales can be restricted to 16386 million units (MU) this fiscal against the 17140 MU projected by the board through energy conservation, tariff revision and the ongoing power restrictions on consumers.