Mumbai, June 26 (IANS) The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (Mahavitaran) CMD Lokesh Chandra on Thursday said that the electricity tariff reduction was due to savings of Rs 66,000 crore in the company’s power purchase cost in the next five years.

He added that this will be passed on to electricity consumers to reduce the electricity tariff for the next five years.

Chandra told reporters that keeping in mind the future electricity requirement of the state of Maharashtra, Mahavitaran has planned for sufficient electricity till the financial year 2034-35.

Power purchase agreements have been signed to increase the power capacity of the state by 45,000 MW in the next five years. In this, emphasis has been mainly placed on renewable energy sources like solar, wind, pump storage, and battery storage.

“Since electricity will be available from these sources at cheaper rates, the company will save Rs 66,000 crore on electricity purchase in the next five years. The benefit of this has been given to domestic, industrial and commercial consumers in the form of electricity tariff reduction. For this, efforts were made in a planned manner for the last two and a half years,” he noted.

He said that the game-changer scheme, Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana 2.0 (MSKVY 2.0), has played an important role in saving power purchase cost.

Under this 16,000 MW solar power project, which will provide daytime power supply to farmers for agricultural pumps, electricity will be available at an average rate of Rs 3 per unit. Such innovative measures will save Mahavitaran’s power purchase costs.

Chandra said that Mahavitaran has emphasised renewable energy. The tariff of electricity available through it will not change for the next 25 years in the case of solar energy and for 40 years in the case of pump storage. Due to the availability of electricity at a cheap and stable price, the power tariff may further decrease after five years. The electricity tariff for domestic, industrial and commercial consumers in the state will not increase in the next five years, but will only decrease, he said.

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission has ordered to provide an additional discount of 80 paise per unit be provided for electricity consumption between 9 am and 5 pm to domestic electricity consumers with smart meters. When asked, Chandra said that this discount will continue.

“Smart meters are meant to provide accurate electricity bills to consumers and to inform consumers about their electricity consumption on a real-time basis. Also, where smart meters have been installed in the state, complaints about electricity bills have come down to almost zero,” he added.

Chandra said that although there are complaints that electricity rates for industries in Maharashtra are higher than other states, there is no truth to it.

“If we consider the concessions available to industries in the state regarding electricity rates, these rates are currently competitive. Also, a decision has been made to reduce electricity rates. In the next five years, the electricity tariff of industries in the state will further decrease and will be lower than states with high industrial demand like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu,” he added.

–IANS

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