Shock and awe by Power Board

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ninety per cent of the electricity supplied to industries (HT/EHT consumers of the KSEB) will be billed at existing tariff and the remaining ten per cent at `10 per unit, said a State Electricity Regulatory Commission order passed on Thursday on a KSEB proposal for imposing power restrictions in the state.The consumption rate will be based on the previous year’s monthly average consumption of each consumer. Power restrictions, including the half-hour loadshedding for LT consumers (which include the domestic category), will be in force up to May 31. A review will be held in the second week of May. The commission, through an interim order, had allowed the KSEB to impose loadshedding on LT consumers from last Monday onwards. But KSEB’s original proposal has undergone a thorough revision in the commission’s hands.For the HT/EHT category, the KSEB had proposed 80 per cent power at normal tariffc and 20 per cent at `11 per unit, since this was the going price of power at liquid fuel stations. The KSEB proposal confining the powercut proposal to the minority HT/EHT consumer category had invited criticism from the Regulatory Commission and HT/EHT consumers as ‘discriminatory.’  Of the one crore-plus KSEB consumers, HT/EHT consumers number 3,232. Also, the KSEB had requested that power restrictions should be in force up to June 30. The commission has rejected this proposal also. Thursday’s decision by the commission will see industries doling out an additional 71 paise per unit. The additional liability of a company using ten lakh units a month would be `7.1 lakh. If the KSEB proposal for a 20 per cent cut had been approved, the liability for the same company would have been `16.2 lakh a month, the Kerala HT/EHT Industrial Consumers’ Association said.With a ten per cent cut on the HT/EHT category, the KSEB will be saving only 1.1 million units (MU) per day, whereas 2.80 MU a day could have been saved with the original proposal of 20 per cent cut, KSEB officials said.