Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The AERC (Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission) has cancelled its scheduled first public hearing at Dibrugarh Circuit House on February 21 on the power tariff hike proposal for the financial year 2025-26 submitted by the APDCL (Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd). The commission had to cancel the February 21 hearing as no individual or organization has registered their names for the hearing.
The second public hearing scheduled at Tezpur Circuit House on March 7 is also uncertain as no individual or organization has registered their names as of today. The last date for registration of this hearing is March 1, 2025.
However, as of today, ten organizations have registered their names for the March 12 public hearing at Bidyut Niyomok Bhawan in Guwahati. The last date for registration of the public hearing in Guwahati is March 5.
The hearings will mainly hinge on the APDCL's proposed power tariff rates submitted to the AERC. The APDCL seeks to introduce a Time-of-Day (ToD) tariff, a three-category tariff structure with night hours, solar hours, and peak hours. This structure will have different tariffs during different periods of the day. This will mark a departure from the existing tariff structure, which had only peak hours and off-peak hours. While the peak hours are from 5 pm to 10 pm, the off-peak hours lasted from 10 pm to 5 pm. According to the proposed tariff structure, night hours will be from 12 midnight to 6 am, solar hours from 6 am to 5 pm, and peak hours from 5 pm to 12 midnight. The peak hours have been increased by two hours.
The hearing of the proposals submitted to the AERC by three other entities - AEGCL (Assam Electricity Grid Corporation Ltd.), APGCL (Assam Power Generation Corporation Ltd.), and SLDC (State Load Dispatch Centre)-will also be heard on the same dates.
Also Read: Assam: AERC allows APDCL to purchase 200 MW power from Kalai II project
Also Watch: