Vacancies in DERC, AAP-LG tussle delay power tariff revisions in Delhi

The DERC has a chairperson and two members ― technical and legal. Both the posts of chairperson and member (legal) are currently lying vacant. AK Ambasht is the current member (technical) of the state power regulator. On February 20, the power ministry wrote to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) seeking a probe against Ambasht for not increasing the power tariffs despite the steady rise in generation costs.

Not just that, Moneycontrol found that the post of Executive Director (tariff) is also vacant in the DERC. The DERC had redesignated the post of Executive Director (Tariff) as Principal Advisor (Tariff) to fill it on a temporary basis. But, in March, the vigilance department started an inquiry into the appointment of the Principal Advisor (Tariff), on allegations of extending “undue favours” in violation of the DERC Act, 2003.

On January 5, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the appointment of retired high court judge Rajeev Shrivastva as the new chairman of DERC, and the file was sent to the LG, Vinai Kumar Saxena, on the same day. However, the LG did not approve the appointment and the file is still with him. The LG’s office did not comment on the matter.

When asked about the issues dogging Delhi's tariff determination process, Union Minister for Power and Renewable Energy RK Singh in an interview to Moneycontrol said LG Saxena had sent the file to the Ministry of power for its opinion on the matter.

"As far as Delhi is concerned, what happened was that the AAP government wanted to bring in somebody from some third state or something like that. You can't do that. It has to be as per the law. We looked up the law. We consulted the Ministry of law.

The LG had asked us to check the legal position. So, the legal position is that if you want a judge in the regulatory commission, it has to be run through the Chief Justice of Delhi. You can't just get a retired judge from any other part of the country and appoint him directly. You have to get clearance from the Chief Justice of Delhi. So, the LG was right," Singh told Moneycontrol.

The AAP government did not respond to queries sent on the matter.

Last year, although there was no tariff revision, electricity cost in Delhi increased by up to 4 percent as the DERC approved the power purchase agreement cost (PPAC) from mid-June, 2022.

The last tariff revision conducted and announced by the DERC was on September 30, 2021. Electricity charges in Delhi were increased by 2 percentage points from October 1, 2021. In that tariff order, the DERC kept all other rates, such as per unit energy cost and fixed charges on the sanctioned load of every household, constant. However, the pension trust surcharge was increased from 5 percent to 7 percent.

Delhi has at least 5.5 million domestic power consumers.

Recently, there was another flashpoint between the AAP government and the Delhi LG over electricity subsidies being offered by the Kejriwal government in the national capital. Now, both the government and the LG have agreed to get an audit conducted of the government's power subsidy scheme.