ANDHRA PRADESH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Hyderabad

 

Present

Sri K. Swaminathan, Chairman

Sri K Sreerama Murthy, Member

Sri Surinder Pal, Member

 


Dated:  22-03-2005

 

O.P. No.   07 of  2005

 

 

Kuppam Rural Electric Co-operative Society Limited           …….     Applicant

 

The Commission having considered the ARR/ERC filings, the additional information and documents made available by the applicant (hereinafter referred to as the “RESCO”) and having stood over for consideration till this day passed the following:

 

ORDER

 

1.       The Kuppam Rural Electric Co-operative Society Limited has been exempted from the requirement of obtaining a Distribution and Retail Supply Licence for the supply area specified in the Licence granted to it earlier under AP Electricity Reform Act, 1998 for one year, from 10-06-2004 to 09-06-2005 as per the orders of the Commission dated 15-06-2004.  As per terms and conditions contained in the said exemption order, the RESCO is required to file its Aggregate Revenue Requirement / Expected Revenue from Charges (ARR / ERC) for the ensuing year by 30th November of each year.

 

 

2.       The RESCO filed its ARR/ERC for the year 2005-06 on 20th December 2004. The ARR/ERC filings by the RESCO were found to be deficient in certain aspects and therefore, clarifications were sought from it. The staff of the Commission was asked to discuss with the officials of RESCO on 16-02-2005 on various issues related to the ARR / ERC calculations of the RESCO. The clarifications made and further details furnished by the RESCO were placed before the Commission.  

 

3.      The Commission analyzed the RESCO’s filings and the representations made to the Commission in the filings, and considered the additional information submitted and clarifications provided by the RESCO. The Commission’s decisions thereon are detailed herein.

 

4.                 Revenue  Requirement

 

(a)           CAPITAL BASE

 

(i)    Original Cost of Fixed Assets (OCFA) and Capital Works - in – progress  (CWIP):

 

The RESCO has projected Rs.2634.00 lakhs under OCFA and                                             Rs. 313.00 lakhs under CWIP in the ARR / ERC filings for the year 2005-06. Based on the audited accounts for the year 2003-04 and the approved ARR for FY 2004-05 and projections for the ensuing year submitted by the RESCO, the OCFA is arrived at Rs.2341.37 lakhs, after adjustment of consumer contributions and grants from other sources received by the RESCO.

 

(ii)              Working Capital :

 

(a)  Average Cost of Stores

(b)  Average Cash and Bank Balances

 

The RESCO has projected Rs. 3.00 lakhs towards average cost of stores and Rs. 8.00 lakhs towards average cash and bank balance.  The Commission admits Rs.2.50 lakhs towards average cost of stores representing one month’s average repairs and maintenance expenses and Rs.12.18 lakhs towards average cash and bank balance representing one month’s all other expenses excluding power purchase cost. 

 

 

(iii)     Accumulated Depreciation:

 

The figure projected by the RESCO (Rs. 1847.00 lakhs) in the filing has been accepted without change, based on the latest audited accounts for the year 2003-04 and the projections for the current year and the ensuing year.

 

(iv)             Other items:

 

The RESCO has projected Rs.415.00 lakhs towards loans, Rs.89.00 lakhs for consumer security deposits and the Commission has accepted the same. 

(v)      Summary of Capital Base:

 

With the above changes, the Net Capital Base of Rs. 607.00 lakhs projected by the RESCO comes down to Rs. 318.05 lakhs as per the details given in the following table:

 

Table- 1

Statement of Capital Base

                                                                   Rs. in Lakhs

Sl. No.

Positive elements

RESCO

APERC

1

Original Cost of Fixed Assets

2634.00

2341.37

2

Capital Works-in-progress

313.00

313.00

3

Working Capital

 

 

 

a) Average Cost of Stores

3.00

2.50

 

b) Avg Cash and Bank balance

8.00

12.18

A

Total of positive elements of Capital Base

2958.00

2669.05

 

Negative elements

 

 

1

Accumulated Depreciation

1847.00

1847.00

2

Approved Loans

415.00

415.00

3

Consumer Security Deposit

89.00

89.00

B

Total of negative elements of Capital Base

2351.00

2351.00

 

Net Capital Base (A-B)

607.00

318.05

 

 

 

(b)      EXPENDITURE ITEMS

 

(i)      Wages and Salaries :

 

The RESCO made a projection of Rs.90.80 Lakhs and the same has been approved by the Commission under this Head.

 

(ii)              Administration & General Expenses and Repairs & Maintenance:

 

The RESCO made projections of Rs.45.00 lakhs and Rs. 35.00 lakhs under these heads which are reduced to Rs.17.20 lakhs and Rs.30.00 lakhs respectively based on the audited accounts for the year 2003-04 and approved ARR for FY 2004-05.

 

(iii)            Other expenditure items :

The projections of the RESCO under Approved loan interest (Rs.3.50 lakhs), Depreciation (Rs.271.91 lakhs), Contribution to Employee funds (Rs.1.50 lakhs), Legal charges (Rs.1.00 lakh), Auditors' Fees (Rs. 0.70 lakh) and other expenses (Rs.3.00 lakhs) have been allowed without any change.   Rent, rates  and taxes (Rs.6.00 lakhs) has been reduced to Rs.3.00 lakhs based on past trend.  Contribution to Contingencies Reserve (Rs. 6.00 lakhs) and Interest on Security Deposits   (Rs. 1.50 lakhs) have been adjusted to the actual calculated figures of Rs.5.85 lakhs and Rs.5.34 lakhs respectively based on prescribed norms.

 

(iv)             Total expenditure:

 

Based on the above changes, the total expenditure (exclusive of expenditure on power purchase) works out to Rs. 433.80 lakhs as against the RESCO's projection of Rs. 465.91 lakhs as detailed below:

 

Table – 2

Statement of Expenditure

                                                          Rs. in Lakhs

Sl. No.

Particulars

RESCO

APERC

1

Wages and Salaries

90.80

90.80

2

Admn & General Expenses

45.00

17.20

3

Repairs and Maintenance

35.00

30.00

4

Rent, Rates & Taxes

6.00

3.00

5

Approved Loan Interest

3.50

3.50

6

Depreciation

271.91

271.91

7

Contbn. to Employee Funds

1.50

1.50

8

Contbn. to Contingency Reserve

6.00

5.85

9

Interest on Security Deposit

1.50

5.34

10

Legal Charges

1.00

1.00

11

Auditors' Fees

0.70

0.70

12

Other Expenses

3.00

3.00

13

Total Expenditure

465.91

433.80

 

(excluding purchase of energy)

 

 

 

 

(c)          Reasonable Return:

 

Based on the changes made to the Capital Base (accepted by the RESCO), the reasonable return works out to Rs. 52.96 as against Rs. 80.99 lakhs projected by it.

 

(d)      Non-tariff Income:

   

The RESCO has projected an amount of Rs. 110.00 lakhs under this head and the Commission has accepted the same.

 

 

 

(e)      Recovery of advance made to a Polytechnic:

 

As directed by the Commission, in the earlier Orders for FY 2001-02, FY 2002-03, FY 2003-04 and FY 2004-05, the RESCO has to recover Rs.110 lakhs advanced by it to a Polytechnic in Kuppam.  Hence, the RESCO shall continue to recover the balance amount in regular installments with intimation       to the Commission on the status of recovery at the end of every quarter. 

 

(f)      The Revenue Requirement for the FY 2005-06

(Excluding power purchase cost)

 

The Aggregate Revenue Requirement (excluding power purchase cost) works out to        Rs. 376.77 lakhs as against Rs. 436.90 lakhs projected by the RESCO. This is after taking into account the Reasonable Return of Rs.52.96 lakhs and Non-Tariff income of Rs.110.00 lakhs.

 

(g)      Efficiency Gains

 

The RESCO has not projected any efficiency gains for FY 2005-06. The Commission desires that the RESCO should improve its efficiency to reduce losses and collect all the outstanding arrears towards sale of energy.  The Commission has fixed Rs.20.00 lakhs towards the efficiency gains, considering its total power demand of 160.79 MU and efficiency already achieved during the last five years. Thus, the net aggregate revenue requirement works out to Rs.356.77 lakhs. 

 

(h)      Expected revenue from charges:

 

The RESCO has filed the Expected Revenue from Charges at Rs.1128.80 lakhs based on current Tariff Rates effective from 01-04-2004 which has been reduced to Rs.701.36 lakhs to give effect to the changes for the agricultural category, where the revenue has been revised as per new modified Agricultural policy of Government of Andhra Pradesh.  This is adopted for the calculation of amount available with the RESCO for power purchases.  Category-wise sales and revenue projected by the RESCO and as approved by the Commission are given in the table below:

 

 

Table – 3

Category-wise Sales and Revenue

 

Sl.

 

RESCO

APERC

No.

CATEGORY

Sales

Revenue

Sales

Revenue

 

 

MU

Rs. Lakhs

MU

Rs. Lakhs

1

LT I - Domestic

13.01

352.97