States can implement ToD tariff system from April: Centre
The move is expected to benefit consumers who are able to shift their energy usage to the daytime.
Hyderabad: The Centre has allowed the Discoms to introduce Time of Day (ToD) tariff system in States for commercial and industrial consumers having maximum demand of 10 KW and above from April 1. The Centre has amended the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020, allowing the States to implement ToD as per their requirement.
The move is expected to benefit consumers who are able to shift their energy usage to the daytime. However, the new tariff will be made effective only after installation of smart meters.
The TOD tariffs, which are separate tariffs for peak hours, solar hours and normal hours, send price signals to consumers to manage their load according to the tariff. As per the new norms, rather than being charged for electricity at the same rate at all times of the day, the price for electricity will vary according to the time of day.
Under the ToD Tariff system, tariffs during solar hours – the duration of eight hours in a day as specified by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission – of the day would be 10 to 20 percent less than the normal tariff, while the tariff during peak hours will be 10 to 20 percent higher.
According to power officials, under the ToD tariff system, consumers could plan their consumption in order to reduce their power costs.
“If the consumer wants to reduce the power tariff, he has to undertake more activities during solar hours when power costs are less,” officials said.
A majority of the States have ToD tariff in place and in some of the States, the ToD tariff has been differentiated across seasons. Like in Punjab, there are 3 different seasons defined for Punjab – April to May, June to September and October to March. Similarly, in Uttar Pradesh during April to September and October to March different ToD rates are applicable at different time slots during these seasons.
In Karnataka, the ToD tariff is applicable for LT Industrial category and most of the HT categories. Whereas in Kerala, the ToD tariff is applicable only for HT Industrial and LT Industrial Category. The ToD is in operation in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Chattisgarh, Assam, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The TOD tariff, is recognized globally across electricity industries, as an important Demand Side Management (DSM) measure, which is used as a means of incentivizing consumers to shift a portion of their loads from peak times to off-peak times, thereby improving the system load factor by reducing the demand on the system during peak period.