Mumbai: State electricity regulator MERC on Friday allowed a hike of 5-10% in power tariffs for residential users in the city. The MERC panel, which includes chairman Sanjay Kumar and members Mukesh Khullar and I B Bohari, also issued orders for revised tariffs for state generation and transmission companies for two years. The MERC has rationalised the tariff for electric vehicle charging at Rs 7.25 per unit for power utilities.
Power experts said a hike in tariff was expected in 2023-24 due to the Fuel Adjustment Charge (FAC) burden, which is a fallout of rising coal prices last year and also increasing power purchase costs. There were also an increase in electricity wheeling charges for certain categories of consumers, they said. Some of the other reasons given by power utilities in their petition seeking increases included “shortfall in availability of renewable power due to delays in commissioning of projects” and “shortfall in revenue due to impact of Covid-19”.
