Tangedco ignores order, bills HT units 90 pc of charges

Several HT industries are facing a double whammy of Tangedco levying maximum demand (MD) charge on one hand and denial of banking for April’s solar captive power plant.

The HT consumers would be normally charged 90 per cent of the sanctioned demand as MD charges apart from the actual consumption of electricity. Following the lockdown announced by the government, associations representing various industries including Association of Indian Forging Industry (AIFI) appealed to the government to waive the MD charges. Some of the association approached the TNERC.

After States like Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka waived the MD charges, TNERC passed a suo moto order on April 4 directing Tangedco to levy only minimum charges on HT industries, said S Muralishankar, president, AIFI. He noted that for his forging unit with sanctioned load of 8-9 MW of power, he has been billed Rs 45 lakh as a fixed charge for April month. “Under this present financial crisis, it will not be possible to pay the 90 per cent MD charges, which is totally in violation with TNERC order. We request the State to intervene and revise April month’s billing. All the industries have paid the March bill fully even though the lockdown was effected from March 25,” he said.

Many HT industries, including forging units and textile units, have put up captive solar power plants in the State after entering into an agreement with Tangedco. Solar power generated is fed into the grid and equivalent units are adjusted in respective HT billings. “Tangedco has shut down its own thermal power plants too. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has advised State discoms to allow banking of the generated units so that the industries can use banked energy during this financial year. However, Tangedco refused to allow solar power banking,” Muralishankar said.