Central Railway authorities believe that if they acquire a deemed licensee status there will be huge savings in the purchase of electricity, something that will only go up in the future as more railway routes get electrified nationwide.
The CR on November 23, 2014, had submitted a petition under Section 14 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to be treated as a deemed licensee, a mechanism that would allow it to trade in power. The petition, filed under the provisions of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (general condition of licensee) regulation 2006, asks MERC to waive off cross-subsidy charges on CR while purchasing power. The matter is still under consideration.
Currently, CR buys at an average of Rs 9 per unit of power and believes that the deemed licensee status – and the subsequent waiving off cross-subsidy charges-- can bring purchase rate down to anything between Rs 3 to Rs 4 per unit. That, in turn, is going to make a huge impact on the precarious financial condition of the transport behemoth, said railway officials.
Speaking about the matter at a 'meet the press' event, CR general manager SK Sood said that the deemed licensee status will allow it to buy power from states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh among others--all with surplus power to sell-- as well the Dabhol power plant, currently called the Ratnagiri Gas and Power Limited.
"Out of the total expenditure of around Rs 2,800 crore on the suburban systems of both CR and WR in Mumbai, a little over Rs 560 crore is for power. This is very high and needs to be brought down," said Sood.
While both CR and WR have got their suburban systems converted from the obsolete 1,500 volt direct current to 25,000 volt alternating current, the savings of around Rs 1 crore per day in electricity due to this is being negated by increases in other sectors like salaries.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu in his budget speech on Febraury 26 had highlighted the problems railway is facing due to the purchase of power at high rates from various distributing companies of state boards. He laid down that the railway, in order to make savings of Rs 3,000 crore on this front, was looking a legal framework that allowed the railways to procure power from generating companies, power exchanges and through bilateral power agreements.
The Railways grand plans to set up a nuclear power plant at the site of the defunct Thakurli power plant close to Kalyan has also come a cropper with the latest process being to convert the area into a huge long-distance terminus to take the load away from Kalyan station.
