The Power Ministry in its new amendment has capped the ‘per unit cost’ of electricity to be used for charging an electric vehicle (EV) at a public station — for domestic charging, the existing rate of that particular state would be applicable.
The new amendment has specified that the tariff for public charging station should not be more than 15 per cent of the state’s average cost of supply (ACS).
“The tariff for supply of electricity to EV public charging station shall be determined by the appropriate commission, in accordance with the extant tariff policy issued under Section 3 of the Electricity Act 2003. The tariff shall not be more than the average cost of supply plus 15 per cent, unless otherwise specified by the tariff policy,” stated the amendment notified this week.
The latest amendment is similar to the original guidelines issued in December 2018.
ACS is the average of the rates at which a state supplies electricity to all sets of consumers — domestic, commercial, industrial, and agriculture. All India ACS stands at Rs 5.48 per unit (as last recorded in 2017-18).
Officials said this was done to push states to keep EV charging rates in control and, thereby, promote the use of EV as public transport. “For mass scale acceptance of EVs, public charging should be accessible at attractive rates, in the limits of the ACS of that state,” said an official.
Reference- Power Ministry website, Business Standard, Economic Times