Hyderabad: TSTransco is losing about Rs 200 crore per year due to the Central government policy on solar power.
TSTransco collects wheeling charges and cross subsidy from industrial and commercial consumers, and also from the power purchasers in the open access system.
But the Central government’s policy on solar power prohibits collection of cross subsidy and wheeling charges from solar rooftops and captive generation.
Generally, Transco collects Rs 3.50 per unit towards cross subsidy and wheeling charges across the board, except from domestic consumers. For domestic consumers, the amount is about Rs 2 per unit.
Captive solar power generators and solar rooftop owners use Transco’s transmission and distribution lines. TSTransco collects wheeling charges for this.
At present, solar rooftop plants and captive units generate about 300 MW or around 2.4 million units of power in the state.
This works out to Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore towards cross subsidy and wheeling charges.
Energy officials say that the Transco spent crores on transmission, distribution lines, transformers etc, yet it is unable to collect wheeling charges and cross subsidy.
They said that the Centre must reimburse the state for the loss of revenue.
