KSEB files plea to impose another fuel surcharge

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amidst its juggling act with loadsheddings, powercut proposals and tariff petitions, the KSEB is now seeking to recover the excess amount spent on buying power during October-December 2011 through another fuel surcharge. KSEB seeks to recover from consumers `79.89 crore incurred as additional liability during the three-month period, said a petition filed before the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.Power purchase proved an expensive affair during this period owing to the price of coal, lignite and the liquid fuels spiralling upwards, KSEB said in its petition. For recovering excess money spent on the same purpose during the previous six months (April-September 2011), the power utility had started collecting 20 paise as surcharge from April 1.In all, KSEB spent `82.42 crore in excess on power purchase during the three months, but the cost admissible as per Commission regulations is `79.89 crore. The total purchase was 1922.14 million units (MU), and quantity admissible as per regulations is 1893.23 MU.The short-term market proved expensive during the three-month period - 684 MU for `342.51 crore at an average rate of `5 per unit. This, when the quantity and rate approved by the Commission was `102.48 MU and `4.50 per unit respectively.Power purchase from the central generating stations (CGS) and liquid fuel stations in Kerala also exceeded approved levels, KSEB said. For instance, the cost of power from the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC Stage-I) exceeded expected levels by 60.96 per cent. KSEB’s expenditure during the three months at the NLC Stage-II exceeded by 61.10 per cent and at NTPC-Simhadri, by 28.10 per cent.