Bihar Chamber of Commerce president OP Sah (centre) delivers a lecture at the workshop in Patna on Monday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 12: A workshop was held today by Independent Power Producers’ Association of India (IPPAI) on the premises of Bihar Chamber of Commerce (BCC) to spread awareness and hold discussion with industry players.

Speaking on the occasion, O.P. Sah, the president of BCC, exhorted on waiving the mandatory provision of allowing OAS only for those units that require 1MW and above. “At present, OAS is allowed for those high tension consumers, who utilise one 1MW and above. But this may act as a constraint in spread of new industries in the state. Thus, Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (Berc) should waive this stipulation and allow OAS for all high tension consumers,” said Shah. High tension consumers are those who utilise 99KVA or above.

The state government has been proactive in the recent past to promote industries but the perennial power crisis continues to haunt most industry players.

However, the situation may improve with the arrival of independent power producers and open access system for fulfilling energy requirements of at least the small and medium (SME) scale industries in the state. Against the normal effective rate of around Rs 7 per unit charged by Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) from consumers, the SMEs would be able to avail electricity at the rate of Rs 4.5 per unit under open access system (OAS).

Under OAS, independent power producers are able to supply electricity to their consumers by utilising the infrastructure of the state electricity board, for which the board imposes certain overhead charges on the final consumer.

“The per unit cost of electricity generated by independent power producers comes to Rs 3.5 per unit, on which BSEB would charge 10 per cent transmission loss (35 paise) and a further 60 paise as open access handling charges. Thus, the cost per unit of the electricity provided under OAS in Bihar would come to around Rs 4.5. This is highly feasible for industries as compared to the effective rate of Rs 7 charged by BSEB on supplying the electricity which it gets from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC),” said Bibhu Biswas, a representative of Global Energy Private Limited.

Speaking on the occasion, former vice-president of BCC, Sanjeev Chaudhary alleged BSEB of being an inefficient body. “The total requirement of the state is 3500MW, against which it gets 1700MW from the central grids including NTPC and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. But the final supply comes to a mere 1200MW, which shows that in spite of acute shortage, BSEB is not able to provide it to consumers. ” said Chaudhary.