Consumers against hike in power tariff

Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (Cesc) proposal to hike power tariff by 75 paise per unit drew a flak here on Thursday.

At a public hearing convened by Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) on the proposal at Deputy Commissioner’s office, eight persons majority among them industrialists representing different organisations fulminated the move on different grounds.

K Raveendra from Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) Manufacturers Association said that it was unwise on the part of Cesc to overburden its customers revising the tariff to bridge its revenue gap. Moreover, industrialists cannot imitate them by imposing the extra cost they incur on their customers.

Instead, the electricity supply corporation can concentrate on cost cutting by deploying economic friendly measures. Also, it should think upon improving its services, especially going for scheduled power cuts.

Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) Convener Sureshkumar Jain was literally angry with Cesc for not treating IT companies as industries, while collecting cess.

Most of the times the industrialists are forced to run from one sub-division to another whenever they face any complaints. Hence, the corporation should think of opening a dedicated sub-division for industries. Reiterating his demand for audited report by Cesc as the latter has been submitting unaudited report during every such meeting, Sureshkumar Jain apprised the Commission about  his demand for implementing Kannada in administration at Cesc that has fallen on deaf ears. Likewise there are many anomalies in the Corporation and it was high time the authorities concentrated on setting them right

Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI) Chairman Raghavendra said revision in tariff again will put them into a fix as they are already paying most of the revenue generated from the business in the form of various taxes and also towards loans.

Electrical engineer Murlimohan wondered why Cesc is going for tariff revision within a short span of one year? Let them think of cost cutting measures. It can start with effective implementation of replacing the existing bulbs with CFL bulbs.

Theerthamallesh of IP Sets Users Association Sakleshpura alleged that the illegal IP sets are not taken into consideration, while legitimate consumers are bearing the brunt. While Hassan falls under Cesc, Chikmagalur comes under the jurisdiction of Mescom. And, the planters have to adhere to the different rates fixed by them amid continued losses from the past six years.

C A Subbaiah from Kodagu Planters Association, advocate Venkatesh also aired their opinions.

Domestic consumers

Surprisingly, the hearing didn’t see any domestic consumers, the actual section of the society that silently suffers as and when there is a hike.

Report to govt soon

“Hearings related to all the ESCOMs have been completed with Cesc and the report will be submitted to the government without any delay”, KERC Chairman M R Sreenivasmurthy told media later.

However, he refused to comment on a question regarding the exact date of filing the report.  

Sreenivas Murthy conducted the hearing, ably assisted by the Commission’s members Vishwanath Hiremath and K Sreenivas Rao.

CFL bulbs glow bright !

Do you know how much power could be saved by switching over to CFL bulbs?
For instance, Cesc that has already installed 92,161 bulbs saving 29 watts of power (40 watt bulbs) reducing 2.67 mega watts load during peak hours, as disclosed by its managing director.