Electricity Board bats for higher O&M costs

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As part of efforts to drive home the point that it is reeling under immense financial stress, KSEB Limited has said that the operation and maintenance expenses the Electricity Regulatory Commission had approved for its transmission wing was too inadequate.

The utility claims that the approved money will meet less than 50 per cent of its transmission O&M expenses in the coming years.

“If the actual O&M cost of transmission system  incurred during the period between 2014-15 to 2016-17 is extrapolated for the subsequent years at 10 per cent growth rate, it is observed that there will be huge under recovery in the O&M cost,” a top KSEBL official said. For instance, the actual O&M cost of 2,530 transmission bays and 9,525 km of circuit lines in 2018-19, as projected by KSEBL, will be Rs 612.57 crore.

The ERC but has allowed just Rs 296.11 crore, which is only 48.34 per cent of the projection. In 2019-10, the projected O&M cost is Rs 673.83 crore, but the ERC provision will be only Rs 312 crore or 46.39 per cent of what KSEBL estimates would be the actual cost. In 2020-21, the ERC has made provision for only 44.53 per cent of the O&M requirement, and for 2021-22, only 42.71 per cent of requirement will be set apart. There is another issue. The O&M estimate for the coming years has not factored in the ageing of the transmission network. “Of the KSEBL’s total transmission asset, 32 per cent of 220KV lines, 43 per cent of 110KV lines and 45 per cent of EHT substations have completed their useful life and are operating on borrowed time. A higher O&M expenses are required to keep them operational,” the official said.

The utility, in a submission to the ERC, has asked for more under O&M expenses. The submission states that the approved O&M expenses are far lower than the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission norms. For instance, if the O&M expense per bay is Rs 12.26 lakh for KSEBL, the CERC norm is Rs 34.36 lakh.