Innovative tariff and metering for Indian grids

The Government of India set up Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (POWERGRID), a Government owned corporation to own, operate and develop power transmission in India. To tackle the various problems caused by the existing tariff system, and also to provide a viable commercial and operational mechanism for integration of captive generation with regional grids, a new tariff structure, described in this paper, is being proposed by POWERGRID. The Availability Tariff is meant for bulk power supply from designated generating stations. As it´s name signifies, the major part of the tariff for the station´s output is based on the station´s availability, rather than on maximum capacity (MW/MVA) or demand as in a conventional two-part tariff. Payments under the Availability Tariff basically comprise two parts-a capacity charge and an energy charge. The capacity charge for a time block (which may be one hour or one day) is paid at a specified Rupees per MW per day, basis for the declared MW output capability of the station for that particular time block. The capacity charge is meant to cover the total fixed cost of the generating station