Government may push power tariffs on time-of-use basis

NEW DELHI: The government will look at various initiatives to improve energy situation, including different power tariffs based on times of use during the day in the 12th Five Year Plan period, starting April 1.

In the 12th Plan, thrust would be given for Demand Side Management initiatives in the power sector, according to an official statement released today.

Demand Side Management (DSM) projects aim at achieving energy efficiency that would help in meeting power demand with that of supply.

"The load management programmes likely to get boost are dynamic/real time pricing based on real-time system of supply and demand, time of use rates where customers are offered different rates for electricity usage at different times of the day...," the statement said.

The government would also look at automated/smart metering for implementing dynamic/real time pricing or time of use rate structure and billing.

"DSM will play an important role in saving the energy and optimal utilisation of resources. There is a deficit of about 14,000 MW electricity demand in peak time and eight per cent deficit in energy," it said.

During April-November 2011, the peak shortage of electricity stood at 13,491 MW.

The country's installed power generation capacity is about 1,85,000 MW.

According to the statement, the demand is also constantly increasing in domestic, agricultural, industrial and commercial sectors.