Shoma Patnaik
Panaji: Even as the state government is planning to change over to a low-carbon energy system in the coming years by encouraging industrial units to go in for green sources, the local industry is unhappy with the proposed green energy charge of Rs 7.21 per kWh (kilowatt-hour) for 2025-26.
Charges for green sources of energy are planned under the Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022.
The rules encourage consumers to opt for environment-friendly sources of energy in place of the normal energy mix supplied by the electricity department. However, the industry on Sunday pointed out that the proposed charge is a steep increase in the green energy tariff for 2025-26 as compared to the previous year’s rate.
In 2024-25, the electricity department had fixed a green energy rate of Rs 6.23 per kWh. “The proposed green energy tariff hike this year is about 15.7% as against an overall tariff increase of 6% mentioned in the multi-year tariff (MYT) petition 2025-30,” pointed out a unit owner.
He said the difference between the green energy charge and regular electricity supplied to high tension industrial consumers, which is an average of Rs 4.7 kVAh (kilovolt-ampere hours), is also on the higher side.
Green energy is electricity generated from renewable and environmentally-friendly sources such as solar, wind, hydro and geothermal power. Under green tariff, consumers choose to pay a slightly higher rate for the electricity in exchange for the knowledge that the energy they are using is derived from renewable sources.
Pharmaceutical companies in the state as well as multinational companies (MNCs) that are answerable to shareholders are interested in green energy to fulfil their zero carbon emission goals.
The multi-year petition of the electricity department submitted to the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for approval has proposed green energy tariff of Rs 7.21 per kWh in 2025-26, followed by Rs 7.83 per kWh in 2026-27, Rs 7.90 per kWh in 2027-28, Rs 8.04 per kWh in 2028-29 and Rs 7.98 per kWh in 2029-30.
The petition states that the green power charges are based on the cost of purchase from other states, transmission and distribution losses, cross-subsidy surcharge, service charge for distribution etc.
It states that JERC had fixed the green energy tariff for the state in 2024-25, and the electricity department this year used the same computation for determining the proposed green tariff structure in its MYT petition for five years.
Green energy tariff was implemented by the state electricity department in July 2024.
