Competition will bring down power tariff: Arun Jaitley

Increased competition in the distribution of power will improve efficiency in the sector, thereby helping to bring down tariff, union minister of finance, corporate affairs and information and broadcasting Arun Jaitley said.

Jaitley was speaking after laying the foundation stone of two power sub-stations and another one dedicated to the people in Delhi, today.

The 400 kV sub-station of Powergrid at Rajghat, 220k V substation at Preet Vihar of Delhi Transco Limited and Harsh Vihar substation of Delhi Transco Limited will significantly improve power availability in Delhi, he said.

These substations will be built with state-of the-art technology and will cater to the power demand especially to Central, East and North Delhi.

In order to facilitate handling of increasing quantum of power with reliability, four 400/220kV substations along with associated 400kV transmission network under interstate transmission system are being implemented within the periphery of Delhi to import power from various sources outside Delhi. Powergrid will be setting up 400/220 kV substations at Rajghat, Tughlakabad, Karampura and Papankalan.

At presently, many 220 kV sub-stations of Delhi are being fed from single source and implementation of the new transmission system by 2016-17, will provide alternate source, which shall improve reliability of power supply, he said.

Besides above, development of intra - state network in Delhi has also been planned and taken up for implementation by DTL for absorption of power in reliable manner, he said.

"If there is competition in power distribution it will improve efficiency and control tariff," he said.

Besides, he said, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014, which aims to bring reforms in the power sector and safeguard consumer interest, was introduced in Lok Sabha, last week.

The amendments will usher in much needed further reforms in the power sector.

It may be recalled that Power Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier said that this proposed legislation would promote competition, efficiency in operations and improvement in quality of supply of electricity in the country.

This would result in capacity addition and ultimate benefit to the consumers, Goyal had said.

The concept of multiple supply licences is proposed by segregating the carriage from content in the distribution sector and determination of tariff based on market principles, while continuing with the carriage (distribution network) as a regulated activity.

Meanwhile, Jaitley said the coal block auction was the first step towards controlling power tariff as the lowest bidders would supply electricity at a cheaper cost.