Power maths: Shift to Tata, halve your bill

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Domestic electricity consumers who switch over to Tata Power Company (TPC) from Reliance Infra (RInfra) stand to save up to 50 per cent on their monthly bills despite the recent 25% increase in TPC tariff. 

    And the savings for changeover consumers who are supplied power by Tata through the RInfra network will be even higher than for Tata’s direct consumers, who get electricity from the company’s own network. This is because RInfra levies only 88 paise per unit as the wheeling charge—the cost a consumer pays for using a power supply network—compared to Tata’s Rs 1.87 per unit. 
    AstheTata networkislimited, it uses the RInfra network for extending connections to many switchover consumers. 
    “It’s the Tata changeover consumers who are benefited more,” power expert Sandeep Ohri said. “Based on this mathematics, you may want to hurry up and switch over to Tata Power Company.” 
    For Tata’s direct consumers, the savings range between 35% and 42%, or roughly Rs 158 for a consumer who uses 100 units a month. 
    The difference between the Tata bill and the RInfra bill may rise even further as some experts think that MERC, the state power regulator, may soon approve an RInfra tariff hike proposal. 
    A MERC ban on switchover to Tata from RInfra for high-end consumers—those using over 300 units per month—will end in August. Also expected in August is an order to recover cross-subsidy surcharge (CSS) from high-end TPC consumers, reducing the savings they make today with Tata. The surcharge will have to be paid by Tata’s high-end as well as commercial consumers to enable the supply of subsidized power to RIfra’s vast low-end consumer pool. 
    Senior power analyst Ashok Pendse said the CSS and the lowering of RInfra power procurement cost would make RInfra tariffs competitive and attractive in the near future. RInfra supplies power to over 21 lakh low-end residential consumers in the city, a figure that makes up 75% of the segment, compared to the two lakh low-end residential users of Tata.

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