In a major tariff shock to residential consumers of Tata Power in the city, the state electricity regulatory commission on Friday approved a 25% increase in tariff for the year FY14.

Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has approved an average increase in tariff to Rs5.26 from the existing Rs4.19 for FY14 for residential consumers, which will be effective from 1 July.

Tata Power is one of the three power distribution companies in Mumbai, the other two being BEST and Reliance Infra. All of them have to get their power tariffs approved from the regulatory commission.

The commission has approved the multi-year tariff plan till 2016 of Tata Power and allowed an increase of 25% for FY14, 15% for FY15 and 11% for FY16 for residential consumers. For FY15, the average tariff for residential consumers has been increased to Rs6.07 while for FY16, the commission has approved an increase in tariff to Rs6.74. Tata Power had proposed an increase of Rs6.44 for 2014-15 and Rs7.02 for FY16.

According to the new tariff plan for FY14, consumers in the below poverty line category will have to pay 10 paise per unit, while the tariff for 0-100 units has been fixed at 26 paise, 101-300 units at Rs1.85 and for those consuming above 500 units, the tariff has been fixed at Rs5.91. The wheeling charges for all the categories has been fixed at Rs1.87 per unit.

For FY15, the tariff will be revised to 41 paise for those consuming below 100 units, Rs2.05 for up to 300 units, Rs5.23 up to 500 units and Rs7.01 for those consuming above 500 units. The wheeling charges for all the consumer categories will be Rs2.08 per unit.

MERC has, for the year 2015-16, increased the tariff for BPL consumers to 47 paise. For those consuming below 100 units will have to pay 81 paise per unit, while the tariff for up to 300 units has been revised to Rs2.75, Rs6.38 for up to 500 units and Rs8.46 for above 500 units. The wheeling charges for the year has been fixed at 1.81 per unit.

The commission has also revised tariff for low tension commercial as well as high tension consumers for the period. The impact of cross subsidy surcharge for consumers migrating from Reliance Infra network to Tata Power is, however, not clear in the tariff order.

SUMMARY ON NEW CLIMATE PLAN OF UNITED STATES 2013

The US government has implanted various policies and plans and has now taken a step forward in climate change. The plan comprises of various changes in different organization, private and governmental bodies. It consists of three main topics of consideration. One is to cut the carbon emission, to prepare the nation for future climatic changes and perils and the last is to contribute in improving the world climate.

The various changes and the major zones and areas where the plan is expecting to make changes are like cutting the carbon throughout the industries by imposing stricter and federal cut off limit. The government is hoping to accelerate the process of permissions for renewable energy development and expansion of grids. Also the use of advanced fossil fuels will help them cope with carbon emission.  As the emission from heavy duty vehicles is second largest the government is hoping to increase fuel economy standards and develop advance transportation technology. Government has also mention the importance of increasing the end users efficiency, commercial and industrial buildings, research in increasing their efficiency and involving and assisting the private organizations for same.

The main greenhouse gases like methane, HFC are expected to be reduced with the help of environmental protection organization, agriculture department and establishing strategies and technologies for the same, increasing the forest. Federal government will lead in clean energy and energy efficiency.

The US government has drawn importance to climate resilient investments. It has aimed to curb the difficulties, provide technical assistance grants and other programs in sectors of transportation water management and disaster relief. It has aimed to help the local communities, tribal with the help of local agencies. The Task Force and federal agencies are also piloting new ways to support resilience in the Sandy-affected region. The Department of Energy will soon release an assessment of climate-change impacts on the energy sector, including power-plant disruptions due to drought and the disruption of fuel supplies during severe storms, as well as potential opportunities to make our energy infrastructure more resilient to these risks. The Department of Health and Human Services will launch an effort to create sustainable and resilient hospitals in the face of climate change. Promoting insurance leadership for climate safety, conserving the land and water, agro sustainability, draught management, preparations for future floods.

The Administration will continue to lead in advancing the science of climate measurement and adaptation and the development of tools for climate-relevant decision-making by focusing on increasing the availability, accessibility, and utility of relevant scientific tools and information. Government has also mentioned to increase the speed and data gathering on climatic conditions, providing the tool kit for climate resilience, assessment of impacts.

The US govt. is also working intensively to forge global responses to climate change through a number of important international negotiations, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, enhancing multilateral engagement with major economies, expanding bilateral cooperation with major emerging economies through initiatives like the US-china clean energy research center, the US-India partnership to advance clean energy. It is also leading through the global methane initiative, which works with 42 partners countries. Negotiating global free trade in environmental goods and services, phasing out subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption of fossil fuels, leading global sector public financing towards cleaner energy, strengthening global resilience to climate change, mobilizing climate finance. At international level the US govt. has taken active participation at global climate events such as Copenhagen Conference, UNFCCC, Montreal Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, Climate meeting in Durban etc.

Thus the new policy on climatic changes is an example for all the other countries and shows the love of the United States for its flora and fauna, people and the world. All the other country must get inspiration from this revolutionary changes that us govt. is about to make and must participate in the same.

Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an environmental treaty with the goal of preventing "dangerous" anthropogenic (i.e., human-induced) interference of the climate system. There are 192 parties to the convention, including 191 states (all UN members, except Andorra, Canada, South Sudan and the United States) and the European Union. The United States signed but did not ratify the Protocol and Canada withdrew from it in 2011. The Protocol was adopted by Parties to the UNFCCC in 1997, and entered into force in 2005.

As part of the Kyoto Protocol, many developed countries have agreed to legally binding limitations/reductions in their emissions of greenhouse gases in two commitments periods. The first commitment period applies to emissions between 2008-2012, and the second commitment period applies to emissions between 2013-2020. The protocol was amended in 2012 to accommodate the second commitment period, but this amendment has (as of January 2013) not entered into legal force.

The 37 countries with binding targets in the second commitment period are Australia, all members of the European Union, Belarus, Croatia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Switzerland, and Ukraine. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets. Japan, New Zealand, and Russia have participated in Kyoto's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period. Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada (which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012) and the United States (which has not ratified the Protocol).

International emissions trading allows developed countries to trade their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.They can trade emissions quotas among themselves, and can also receive credit for financing emissions reductions in developing countries. Developed countries may use emissions trading until late 2014 or 2015 to meet their first-round targets.

Developing countries do not have binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol, but are still committed under the treaty to reduce their emissions. Actions taken by developed and developing countries to reduce emissions include support for renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, and reducing deforestation. Under the Protocol, emissions of developing countries are allowed to grow in accordance with their development needs.

The treaty recognizes that developed countries have contributed the most to the anthropogenic build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (around 77% of emissions between 1750 and 2004), and that carbon dioxide emissions per person in developing countries (2.9 tonnes in 2010) are, on average, lower than emissions per person in developed countries (10.4 tonnes in 2010).

A number of developed countries have commented that the Kyoto targets only apply to a small share of annual global emissions. Countries with second-round Kyoto targets made up 13.4% of annual global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2010. Many developing countries have emphasized the need for developed countries to have strong, binding emissions targets. At the global scale, existing policies appear to be too weak to prevent global warming exceeding 2 or 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to the pre-industrial level.

sustainable energy

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the twin pillars of sustainable energy. Some ways in which sustainable energy has been defined are:

• "Effectively, the provision of energy such that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. ...Sustainable Energy has two key components: renewable energy and energy efficiency." – Renewable Energy and Efficiency Partnership (British)
• "Dynamic harmony between equitable availability of energy-intensive goods and services to all people and the preservation of the earth for future generations." And, "the solution will lie in finding sustainable energy sources and more efficient means of converting and utilizing energy." – Sustainable energy by J. W. Tester, et al., from MIT Press.
• "Any energy generation, efficiency & conservation source where: Resources are available to enable massive scaling to become a significant portion of energy generation, long term, preferably 100 years.." – Invest, a green technology non-profit organization.
• "Energy which is replenishable within a human lifetime and causes no long-term damage to the environment." – Jamaica Sustainable Development Network

This sets sustainable energy apart from other renewable energy terminology such as alternative energy and green energy, by focusing on the ability of an energy source to continue providing energy. Sustainable energy can produce some pollution of the environment, as long as it is not sufficient to prohibit heavy use of the source for an indefinite amount of time. Sustainable energy is also distinct from low-carbon energy, which is sustainable only in the sense that it does not add to the CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Green Energy is energy that can be extracted, generated, and/or consumed without any significant negative impact to the environment. The planet has a natural capability to recover which means pollution that does not go beyond that capability can still be termed green.

Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Customers often buy green power for avoided environmental impacts and its greenhouse gas reduction benefits.