Patna, June 23: Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (Berc) has invited suggestions from all stakeholders to decide as to whether the open access system be made mandatory or not according to the recommendation of the Union ministry of power.

Under the open access system, private entrepreneurs can sign power purchase agreement directly either with a power firm located within or outside the state or through power trading corporation or exchange. It would give entrepreneurs the option of purchasing power from the company offering lowest tariff.

Entrepreneurs entering into such agreements would have the licence to use the state electricity board’s network (transmission and distribution line) to either sell or purchase power. But they would have to pay the board open access charge for using the network.

Berc has taken a suo motu initiative to determine tariff of the consumers having requirement of power of 1MW and above because such consumers would be considered as deemed open access consumers.

“We have invited suggestions/objections/comments from the public and stakeholders latest by July 18, following which the matter would be heard in the last week of the month where people can apprise the commission of their views. Primarily, we will decide whether or not the system be made mandatory for consumers having the requirement of 1MW or above,” Berc chairman U.N. Panjiar said.

Stating that the access system was available for entrepreneurs as an option, Panjiar said the Union ministry of power has recommended to make the system mandatory for consumers having consumption of 1MW or above.

He said: “The commission will not decide tariff. Parties (power sellers and buyers) would have to make bi-lateral deals for determining tariff.”

Bihar Industries Association (BIA) has welcomed Berc’s decision to invite suggestions from all stakeholders.

“The system should be encou-raged as allowing it would give rise to competition among power producers, leading to a fall in tariff rate. The commission should reduce wheeling charge (open access charge levied for using board’s transmission and distribution network) to a rational level,” BIA president KPS Keshri said. Some entrepreneurs believe the system should not be made mandatory, as it might absolve the state electricity board of supplying power to commercial and industrial firms.

“Open access should not be made mandatory. Rather, it should remain as an option for entrepreneurs. Making open access system mandatory would mean absolving the state electricity board of its responsibility of providing power supply to the entrepreneurs having consumption of more than 1MW,” said Sanjay Bhartia, the chairman of the energy sub-committee of Bihar Chamber of Commerce.

Bhartia said 14 entrepreneurs have made applications seeking power through open access but the board has neither rejected nor approved their applications. But the board officials have been sitting over the applications for the past one-year citing technical difficulties, he added.

The commission in its recommendation of the tariff order of 2008 and the tariff order of 2010 iterated the need to have open access system to meet energy requirement of the state.