West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) has directed open access consumers to pay ₹0.99 (~$0.012)/kWh as wheeling charges to West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL) for the use of its distribution system during the financial year (FY) 2022-23.

In the multi-year tariff order of the seventh control period, the Commission determined the net aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) for FY 2022-23 as ₹212.68 billion (~$2.66 billion). The net ARR for distribution wheeling after deducting the non-tariff income, expense incidental to selling and distribution of energy, and income from other businesses is ₹33.91 billion (~$425.25 million).

According to the multi-year tariff, the total sales quantity, including energy wheeled for FY 2022-23, is 34.09 billion units.

The wheeling charge will be realized per open access regulations for short-term open access. However, for the conveyance of electricity from cogeneration and renewable energy sources, the wheeling charge will be realized by WBSEDCL from open access customers as per the relevant regulation.

Open access customers, other than those carrying the electricity generated in a captive generating plant to the destination and for their use, must pay a cross-subsidy surcharge in addition to the distribution wheeling charge as per the open access regulations.

The cross-subsidy surcharge collected will be accounted for separately and utilized to meet the current level of cross-subsidy. Distribution companies must compute the applicable cross-subsidy surcharge based on the formula specified in the open access regulations considering the weighted average unit cost of pooled power purchase variable cost and own generation fuel cost.

The wheeling charge and cross-subsidy surcharge already recovered from long-term open access customers during 2022-23 will be adjusted. The wheeling charge rate as specified for 2022-23 will continue until further orders of the Commission.

Recently, the Ministry of Power announced the launch of the National Open Access Registry. It is a single integrated window electronic platform accessible to all stakeholders, including open access participants, traders, power exchanges, and national/regional/state load despatch centers for electronic processing of short-term open access applications.

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