(1)The amount received or to be received by the licensee on account of cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge, as approved by the Commission from time to time in accordance with the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (Cross Subsidy Surcharge, Additional Surcharge and Phasing of Cross Subsidy) Regulations, 2006, shall be shown Less
(d) consumer security deposit, if any.” 1 Subs. vide Not. HPERC-F(1)-1/2018 dated 22 nd November, 2018 published in R.H.P. dated 27 th November, 2018 at p. 6265-6277. Before its substitution read as under:
“Working Capital for Retail Supply Business.- Working capital for retail supply of electricity shall consist of –
(a) O&M expenses for one month;
(b) receivables for two months of revenue from sale of electricity;
(c) maintenance spares @ 40% of R&M Expenses for one month;
Less:
(i) power purchase costs for one month; and
(ii) consumer security deposit, if any.” 32 Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2021 separately against the consumer category that is permitted open access as per the phasing plan.
(2) Cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge shall be shown as revenue from the tariff from the consumer categories permitted open access in accordance with the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (Cross Subsidy Surcharge, Additional Surcharge and Phasing of Cross Subsidy) Regulations, 2006 and such amount shall be utilized to meet the cross-subsidy requirements of subsidised categories and fixed costs of the licensee arising out of his obligation to supply. The licensee shall provide such details in its annual filings.
1 [34. Quality of Supply and Services.- (1) The quality of supply and the customer service parameters shall be monitored as per the norms specified by the Commission from time to time.
(2) The licensee shall propose baseline and performance trajectory for quality parameters for wheeling and retail supply business in its business plan as specified in the Standards of Performance Regulations framed under sub-section (1) of section 57 and subsection (1) of section 59, read with clauses (za) and (zb) of sub-section (2) of section 181, of the Act.
(3) The Commission shall make an assessment on reliability of baseline data and may prescribe the performance trajectory for each identified parameter for the control period which shall be complied with by the distribution licensee. The Commission shall develop a performance framework to encourage licensees to improve quality of supply and services.
(4) Recovery of the Annual Revenue Requirement determined as per the norms under these regulations shall be based on achievement of the target availability index as follows:-
(a) The Availability index shall be computed for both Wheeling Business and Supply Business of the Distribution Licensee on yearly basis as per following:-
(i) For Wheeling Business:
Wheeling Network Availability Index (%) = (1-(SAIDI/8760)) X 100 Where, SAIDI = calculated under HPERC (Distribution Performance Standards) Regulations, 2010;
(ii) For Supply Business:
The Supply Availability shall be measured on the basis of power contracted by the Distribution Licensee on a long-term basis as per the power procurement plan under following heads:
Base Load Supply Availability = ((Actual Contracted Base Load Supply (MW)) X (Number of Off-Peak hours))/ ((Base Load in MW) X (Number of Off-Peak hours));
1 Subs. vide Not. No. HPERC/F(5)(3)(1)(Retail) dated 1 st November, 2013 published in the R.H.P.
dated 4 th November, 2013 at p. 4579- 4596 and before its substitution regulation 34 read as under:
“34. Quality of Supply and Services
(1) The quality of supply and the customer service parameters shall be monitored as per the norms specified by the Commission from time to time.
(2) The licensee shall propose baseline and performance trajectory for quality parameters as specified in the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (Distribution Performance Standards) Regulation, 2010.
(3) The Commission shall make an assessment on reliability of baseline data and may prescribe the performance trajectory for each identified parameter for the control period which shall be complied by the distribution licensee. The Commission shall develop a performance framework to encourage licensees to improve quality of supply and services.
(4) The licensee shall submit the performance on each parameter in the form and manner directed by the Commission and the Commission shall conduct periodic reviews on the performance of the licensee with respect to quality parameters.” Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2021 33 Peak Load Supply Availability=((Actual Contracted Peak Load Supply(MW)) X (Number of Peak hours))/ ((Peak load in MW)X (Number of Peak hours));
Supply Availability Index = 75% of Base Load Supply Availability + 25% of Peak Load Supply Availability;
(b) The distribution licensee shall maintain data on planned maintenance outages, load shedding, force majeure outages and trippings;
(c) The incentive/disincentive shall exclude the circumstances when the actual supply differs from the contracted supply due to force majeure situations, weather conditions, extreme monsoon failure, station outages, etc. which are beyond the control of the Distribution Licensee;
(d) The Commission shall specify progressively increasing normative levels of Availability for Wires and Supply Business of the Distribution Licensee on the basis of past performance over the control period;
Provided that the Availability of Supply Business shall not be lower than 90% and shall gradually increase to 95%;
(e) The gains and losses in the ARR shall be considered as ±0.2% of ARR or any other percentage as may be determined by the Commission for every percentage point increase/decrease in availability vis-à-vis the normative levels of availability:
Provided that the maximum additional return that can be earned/reduced shall be = ±2% of ROE or any other percentage as may be determined by the Commission.]
1 [34-A. Provision for bad and doubtful debts.—The Commission may allow a provision for bad and doubtful debts upto one percent (1%) of the estimated annual revenue of the distribution licensee, subject to actual writing off of bad debts by it in the previous years:
Provided further that where the total amount of such provisioning allowed in previous years for bad and doubtful debts exceed five (5) per cent of the receivables at the beginning of the year, no such appropriation shall be allowed which would have the effect of increasing the provisioning beyond the said maximum.
PART-IV MULTI YEAR TARIFF FILING PROCEDURE [35. Multi-Year Filings for the control period.- (1) The multiyear tariff filing shall be in such form and in such manner as may be laid down by the Commission by an 2 order and also as per the provisions of the Conduct of Business Regulations.
(2) The licensee shall also submit the multiyear tariff filing in electronic format to the Commission.
3 [36. Beginning of the control period – business plan filings .- In the base year, prior to the filing of multi-year ARR cum Tariff petition, the distribution licensee shall file a 1 Ins. vide Not. HPERC-F(1)-1/2018 dated 22 nd November, 2018 published in R.H.P. dated 27 th November, 2018 at p. 6265-6277.
2 For Orders and Forms see R H.P. dated 6 th April, 2011 at p. 209 and R H.P. dated 4 th Nov., 2013 at p. 4596-4599.
3 Subs. vide Not. No. HPERC/F(5)(3)(1)(Retail) dated 1 st November, 2013 published in the R H.P.
dated 4 th November, 2013 at p. 4579- 4596 and before its substitution regulation 36 read as under:
34 Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2021 business plan approved by its board of directors. The business plan shall be for the entire control period and shall, inter-alia, contain - 1[(a) forecast of sales- the distribution licensee shall forecast sales for each consumer category and sub-categories, at different voltage levels, for each Year of the Control Period, for the Commission’s review and approval; The forecast shall be based on the actual demand of electricity in previous Years, anticipated growth in demand in coming Years, expected growth in the number of consumers, changes in the pattern of consumption, target distribution losses and other relevant factors;
The licensee shall indicate separately the sale of electricity to traders or another licensee and category wise sales to Open Access Consumers;]
(b) distribution loss reduction trajectory for each year of the control period;
(c) collection efficiency for each year of the control period;
(d) 2 [power procurement plan- the distribution licensee shall prepare a plan for procurement of power to serve the demand for electricity in its area of supply “36. Beginning of the control period - business plan filings: The distribution licensee shall file, for the Commission’s approval, on or before 30 th November of the year, preceding the first year of the control period, or any other date as may be directed by the Commission, a business plan approved by its board of directors. The business plan shall be for the entire control period and shall, interalia, contain: -
(a) sales/demand forecast for each customer category and sub-categories for each year of the control period;
(b) distribution loss reduction trajectory for each year of the control period;
(c) collection efficiency for each year of the control period;
(d) power procurement plan based on the sales forecast and distribution loss trajectory for each year of the business plan period; the power procurement plan may also include energy efficiency and demand side management measures;
(e) capital investment plan: This shall take into account the sales/demand forecast, power procurement plan, distribution loss trajectory, targets for quality of supply, etc. The capital investment plan shall be consistent with the perspective plan drawn by the State Transmission Utility (STU), and shall include the corresponding capitalisation schedule and financing plan. The Commission shall approve capital investment plan of the licensees for the control period commensurate with load growth, distribution loss reduction and quality improvement proposed in the business plan;
(f) the appropriate capital structure of each scheme proposed and cost of financing (interest on debt and return on equity), terms of the existing loan agreements, etc;
(g) the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs estimated for the base year and two years prior to the base year with complete details, together with the forecast for each year of the control period based on the proposed efficiency in operating costs, norms for O&M cost allowance including indexation and other appropriate mechanism;
(h) details of depreciation based on the useful life of the asset and capitalisation schedules for each year of the control period;
(i) a set of targets proposed for other items such as collection efficiency, bad debts, working capital, quality of supply targets, etc. The targets shall be consistent with the capital investment plan proposed by the licensee;
(j) proposals for other items such as external parameters used for indexation (inflation, etc);
(k) other information: This shall include any other details considered appropriate by the distribution licensee for consideration during determination of tariff; and the filings in addition to the control period data, shall also contain the data for the cost and revenue parameters for the last three years.” 1 Subs. vide Not. HPERC-F(1)-1/2018 dated 22 nd November, 2018 published in R.H.P. dated 27 th November, 2018 at p. 6265-6277.Bbefore its substitution read as under:
“(a) sales/demand forecast for each customer category and sub-categories for each year of the control period;” 2 Subs. vide Not. HPERC-F(1)-1/2018 dated 22nd November, 2018 published in R.H.P. dated 27th November, 2018 at p. 6265-6277.Bbefore its substitution read as under:
“(d) power procurement plan – comprising monthly/annual Demand (MW) and Energy (MU) requirements, along with economic depictions, based upon the power procurement sources (existing/upcoming), sales forecasts (restricted/ unrestricted demand, base load/peak load/off load power requirement) and distribution loss trajectory and may also include energy conservation, energy efficiency and demand side management measures:
Provided that, the licensee may source its primary power requirements from long-term/ medium-term sources and only unforeseen shortfalls may be sourced from short-term sources:
Provided further that, an additional quantum of 5% of the power requirement may be kept as contingent surplus to take care of events resulting in shortfall on account of reasons beyond the control of the licensee:
Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2021 35 and submit such plan to the Commission for approval as a part of Business Plan:
Provided that such power procurement plan may include long-term, medium term and short term sources of power procurement, in accordance with these regulations;
(da) The power procurement plan of the distribution licensee shall comprise of the following:
(i) a quantitative forecast of the unrestricted base load and peak load for electricity within its area of supply;
(ii) an estimate of the quantity of electricity supply from the identified sources of power purchase, including own generation, if any;
(iii) measures proposed for energy conservation, energy efficiency, and demand side management;
(iv) an estimate of availability of power to meet the base load and peak load requirement:
Provided that such estimate of demand and supply shall be on month wise basis in Megawatt (MW) as well as expressed in Million Units (MU);
(v) standards to be maintained with regard to quality and reliability of supply, in accordance with the relevant regulations of the Commission;
(vi) the requirement for new sources of power procurement, including augmentation of own generation capacity, if any, and identified new sources of supply, based on the foregoing items (i) to (v);
(vii) the sources of power, quantity and cost estimates for such procurement:
Provided that the forecast or estimates for the Control Period shall be prepared for each month over the Control Period:
Provided further that the long-term procurement plan shall be a cost effective plan based on available information regarding costs of various sources of supply;
(db) the forecast or estimate shall be prepared using forecasting techniques based on past data, sales forecast, impact of loss reduction initiatives, improvement in Generating Station Plant Load Factors and other relevant factors;
(dc) where the Commission has specified a percentage of the total consumption of electricity in the area of a distribution licensee to be purchased from cogeneration or renewable sources of energy including solar power, the power procurement plan shall include the plan for procurement from such sources upto the specified level;
(dd) the distribution licensee shall also consult the State Transmission Utility at the time of preparation of the power procurement plan, to ensure consistency of such plan with the transmission system plan;
(de) the distribution licensee may, as a result of additional information not previously known or available to it at the time of submission of the procurement plan under regulation apply for modification in the power procurement plan for the remaining Control Period, as part of its petition for Mid-term Review;
Provided also that, where the Commission has stipulated a percentage of the total consumption of electricity in the area of a distribution licensee to be purchased from co-generation and renewable sources of energy, the power procurement plan of such distribution licensee shall include the plan for procurement from such sources at least up to the specified level;” 36 Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2021
(df) the Commission may, as a result of additional information not previously known or available to the Commission at the time of approval of the procurement plan, if it deems appropriate, suo motu or on a petition filed by the distribution licensee, modify the procurement plan of the distribution licensee for the remaining Control Period, as part of the Mid-term Review;]
(e) capital investment plan (CAPEX plan): The Commission shall approve the capital investment of the licensee for the control period, the CAPEX plan being based upon load forecasts, load flow studies/power evacuation plans/plan drawn by the State Transmission Utility (STU), system improvement (distribution loss reduction, reliability/quality of supply etc.) and the corresponding capitalization schedule and financing plan, the appropriate capital structure of each scheme proposed and cost of financing (interest on debt and return on equity), terms of loan agreements, etc:
Provided that, the consumer contributions towards cost of capital assets and the assets so created shall be accounted for separately as per standard accounting principles;
(f) Operation & Maintenance (O&M): The filing shall be in accordance with the provisions of sub-regulation (1-a) of regulation 17 of these regulations and shall include the fresh recruitments proposed at various levels and the major Repair and Maintenance (R&M) works proposed during each year of the control period along with estimated costs;
(g) details of depreciation based on the useful life of the asset and capitalization schedules for each year of the control period;
(h) a set of targets proposed for other items such as collection efficiency, bad debts, working capital, quality of supply targets, etc. The targets shall be consistent with the capital investment plan proposed by the licensee;
(i) proposals for other items such as external parameters used for indexation (inflation, etc);
(j) other information: this shall include any other details considered appropriate by the distribution licensee for consideration during determination of tariff; and
(k) the filings in addition to the control period data, shall also contain the data for the cost and revenue parameters for the last three years.” 1 [37. Aggregate Revenue Requirement (Multi-year, APR and MPR) and tariff filings during the control period.- (1) The distribution licensee shall file not less than 120 1 Subs. vide Not. No. HPERC/F(5)(3)(1)(Retail) dated 1 st November, 2013 published in the R.H.P. dated 4 th November, 2013at p. 4579- 4596 and before its substitution regulation 37 read as under:
“37. Annual Performance Review (APR) during the control period
(1) The distribution licensee shall file an application for approval of wheeling tariff and retail supply tariff for each year of the control period, not less than 120 days before the commencement of the first year or subsequent year of the control period or such other date as may be directed by the Commission.
(2) The wheeling tariff shall be determined for each year of the control period at the beginning of the control period. The licensee shall propose energy based wheeling tariff. The licensee shall also indicate the distribution losses voltage-wise to provide for adjustment of losses in the system.
(3) The filings for wheeling tariff shall contain the following: -
(a) the distribution system or network usage forecast for each year of the control period, consistent with the business plan;
(b) proposals for computation of tariffs for wheeling of electricity for each of the years of the control period, including the losses and the procedure thereof;
(c) proposals for non-tariff income, with item-wise description and details;
(d) proposals in respect of income from other businesses like consultancy services, convergence, training facilities, etc;
(e) proposed wheeling tariff (voltage-wise);
Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2021 37 days before the commencement of the first year of the control period or such other date as may be directed by the Commission, an application for approval of multi-year Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) for each year of the control period and determination of wheeling and retail supply tariff for the first year of the control period.
(2) For the subsequent years of the control period, in the APR and MPR filings, the distribution licensee shall file not less than 120 days before the commencement of the respective year of the control period or such other date as may be directed by the Commission, an application for the approval of annual Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) and for determination of wheeling and retail supply tariff for the respective year.
(3) The licensee for the APR shall file for adjustments to multi-year ARR approved in first year of control period on account of uncontrollable parameters and for the MPR shall file for adjustments to approved multi-year ARR on account of both controllable and uncontrollable parameters:
Provided that the during the MPR, the Commission may revise the trajectories for various controllable parameters for the remaining period of the control period and this shall be deemed to give consequential effect to the ARR approved in the first year of the control period.
(4) The filings for wheeling tariff shall contain the following:-
(a) the distribution system or network usage forecast for each year of the control period, consistent with the business plan;
(b) proposals for computation of tariffs for wheeling of electricity for each of the years of the control period, including the voltage-wise losses, adjustment of losses in the system and the procedure thereof;
(c) proposals for non-tariff income, with item-wise description and details;
(d) proposals in respect of income from other businesses like consultancy services, convergence, training facilities, etc;
(e) proposed energy based wheeling tariff (voltage-wise);
(f) expected revenue from the proposed wheeling tariff, including additional surcharge etc.
(f) expected revenue from the proposed wheeling tariff, including additional surcharge etc.
(4) The filings for retail supply tariff shall contain the following: -
(a) the licensee’s proposal for retail sale of electricity for the consumers pertaining to retail supply business, which shall include energy sales, tariffs for each consumer category, slab-wise and voltage-wise. The proposed tariff may also be based on energy charges, demand charges, minimum charges, etc alongwith the tariff rationalization measures;
(b) proposal for power procurement quantum based upon energy sales and distribution losses, cost of power purchase, transmission and load despatch charges etc;
(c) proposals for non-tariff income with item-wise description and details;
(d) proposals in respect of income from other businesses like consultancy services, convergence, training facilities, etc;
(e) expected revenue from the proposed retail supply tariff, and other matters considered appropriate by the distribution licensee, including incentive schemes to consumers, cross-subsidy surcharge, etc.
(5) Each tariff proposal submitted by the distribution licensee shall –
(a) be supported with the principles of cost-of-service model allocating the costs of the licensed business to each category of consumers based on voltage-wise costs and losses, and
(b) demonstrate that the tariffs are progressively reflecting the cost of supply.
(6) The licensee shall furnish to the Commission, such additional information, particulars and documents as the Commission may require from time to time after such filing of revenue calculations and tariff proposals.
(7) The licensee shall publish, for the information of the public, the contents of the application in an abridged form in such manner as the Commission may direct and shall host the complete copy of the filing on its website and shall also provide copies of the documents filed with the Commission to any person at a price not exceeding normal photocopying charges.” 38 Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2021
(5) The filings for retail supply tariff shall contain the following:-
(a) the licensee’s proposal for retail sale of electricity for the consumers pertaining to retail supply business, which shall include energy sales, tariffs for each consumer category, slab-wise and voltage-wise. The proposed tariff may also be based on energy charges, demand charges, minimum charges, etc alongwith the tariff rationalization measures;
(b) proposal for power procurement quantum based upon energy sales and distribution losses, cost of power purchase, transmission and load despatch charges etc;
(c) proposals for non-tariff income with item-wise description and details;
(d) proposals in respect of income from other businesses like consultancy services, convergence, training facilities, etc;
(e) expected revenue from the proposed retail supply tariff, and other matters considered appropriate by the distribution licensee, including incentive schemes to consumers, cross-subsidy surcharge, etc;
(f) Each tariff proposal submitted by the distribution licensee shall be progressively compliant of the various principles enunciated in the regulation 41-B of these regulations and demonstrate that the tariffs are progressively reflecting the cost of supply.
(6) The licensee shall furnish to the Commission, such additional information, particulars and documents as the Commission may require from time to time after such filing of revenue calculations and tariff proposals.
(7) The licensee shall publish, for the information of the public, the contents of the application in an abridged form in such manner as the Commission may direct and shall host the complete copy of the filing on its website and shall also provide copies of the documents filed with the Commission to any person at a price not exceeding normal photocopying charges.
1 [38. Review during the control period.- (1) The distribution licensee shall submit information as part of annual review on actual performance vis-à-vis performance targets approved by the Commission at the beginning of the control period, profit sharing mechanism for exceeding the targets, and implementation of performance framework for quality of supply targets.
(2) The revised estimates shall be required because of trued-up costs on account of variations in uncontrollable parameters in respect of APR and variations in both controllable and uncontrollable parameters in respect of MPR.]