APERC asks discoms to justify power purchases

VIJAYAWADA: The APERC has sought a justification report from the state discoms for procuring energy from exchanges (power trading platforms) even though per-unit variable costs of the thermal units, which are kept in reserve shutdown citing high prices, were lesser than the per-unit rates of energy procured from exchanges in December and January.

The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission also noted that the quantum of procurements from power exchanges were ‘huge’, to the tune of 15 to 20 per cent of the state’s per-day requirement. In a letter written to APSPDCL, APCPDCL and APEPDCL on Tuesday, the in-charge commission secretary C Ramakrishna noted that the maximum (marginal) per unit variable cost of the last dispatched thermal power plant, as indicated in the approved merit order despatch table in the RST order for the FY 2020-21, is Rs 3.98.