The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has proposed setting the national average power purchase cost (APPC) for the financial year 2018-19, at Rs 3.53 per kWh.
The CERC has also proposed that the APPC will be applicablefor the deviation settlement for open access and captive wind and solar generators fulfilling the requirement of regional entities. The new APPC is Re 0.05 per kWh more than the APPC decided for the year 2017-18 (Rs 3.48 per kWh). The National APPC was calculated by averaging the APPC of all states and union territories (UTs), weighted by volume of conventional power purchased by the respective states and UTs. For multiple utilities operating in a state, the average of power purchase cost weighted by total power of the respective utilities was computed by CERC to derive the APPC for the entire state.
However, the total cost of power purchase taken for the APPC computation, excludes the cost of generation or procurement from renewable energy sources as well as transmission charges. The new APPC will not apply to the states whose state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) have not issued tariff orders in past financial years. For example, for the state of Tripura, the tariff order of 2014-15 will be considered whereas for West Bengal, the tariff order of 2016-17 will be applicable.