We often hear the more bills, the more BP (blood pressure), but do we know how all this goes.
Let’s ponder over the dialectics of
this topic.
Energy rates -The foremost term showing up is energy rates. Energy
rate is the fixed amount of money you pay for one unit for your consumption.
The total bill calculates the revenue of each unit used.
You wonder,
your bill came up huge this time?
Let’s see what it included-
1)
Consumption costs - A consumer is charged as per the
amount of energy used. Fixed tariff slabs are used to determine the final cost
of energy. These slabs include over compensation of energy if the usage
surpasses fixed threshold. This price is influenced by the market: demand,
weather conditions, world reserves, and the international political situation.
2)
Supply cost - This part of the bill deals with the supply of energy from
its place of production to different areas. This also involves the maintenance
of the pipelines or wires i.e., the path of energy.
3)
Surplus taxes and charges- Surplus taxes, fees and other extra
amounts set by state are charged.
Tariff
arithmetic
The tariff slab varies with the type
of consumer. Domestic tariff slabs are way different than that of industrial
ones. The electricity tariffs depend on the following factors.
1)
Type of load
2)
Time at which load is required.
3)
Maximum load and usage.
4)
The power factor of the load.
5)
The amount of energy used.
Price hike in pandemic Let’s see why?
Although energy rates do not change frequently over a period
of 4-8 years, there can be mishaps at any moment. The normal cycle runs
gradually but in cases of unforeseen calamities prices tend to hike at a very
fast pace in small amounts of time. Some of such Factors leading to sudden hike
of prices are-
•
Extreme Weather: Unforeseen weather extremities like storms, floods
cause high need of energy demands while predicted extremities are no less. Many
distribution pipelines, connections are broken leading to scarcity of energy.
•
Outages: Sudden stoppage of production areas can severely lead to
price hike. There are many reasons for it.
•
Source Fuels: The interconnection of raw fuel to produced energy
affects the energy rates at a big level. For ex Electricity prices greatly
depends of coal prices
•
Geopolitical Events: Many regions which import or export
energy are prone to sudden changes in case of political issues (unrest), wars
etc. This led to sudden dramatic change in energy rates.
Risen prices
in India..!!!
Recent studies show that energy rates
for Indian consumers are highest in South Asia even though India ranks lowest
among 12 countries in power generation. We have understood what affects the
tariff of a particular region. So the question arises how other countries
manage to serve energy at less prices despite producing at prices higher than
India. Much of this credit goes to the malpractices practiced by India’s power
retail companies who often increase their tariff. It seems that privatization
of electricity didn’t seem to work for our country. Factors like faulty meters
and misleading bills add up on more to this cause.
We know the diversity in India, in this note even tariff
slabs show diversity also. In states like Maharashtra and west Bengal prices
are as high as Rs 7-8 and regions like Delhi it is as low as Rs 3 per unit.
Huh, we don’t own
an energy plant and can’t turn the tables but
“The more we save, the less we
crave”
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