Mumbai : Private utility Tata Power yesterday said it has added nearly 85,000 low-end consumers in its network in the city between August 2012 and June 2013.“Tata Power has added over 85,000 low-end consumers since August last year resulting in an addition of around 8,000-9,000 consumers per month,” it said in a statement.

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) had last year directed Tata Power to add low-end customers, consuming less than 300 units, to its network by August this year to achieve a balance in the consumer mix.

The directives came after Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) alleged TPC of cherry picking high-end consumers.

Over 70 per cent of RInfra consumers are low-end residential users while Tata Power has a significant number of its customers falling in high-consumption category of over 300 units a month—both in residential and commercial categories.

MERC had also asked Tata Power to lay its own network in 11 different clusters in the city to provide connections to as many low-end residential consumers as possible.

Tata Power in its statement said, “the company has also done steady network expansion within the city with a focus on 11 clusters post receiving permission from MERC on August 22, 2012 after around 10 years of limited or no permissions.”

“We have faced several challenges in the laying of the network. However, we have been successful in adding more than 270 km of cable network and have secured a capex approval of around Rs 1,000 crore from MERC to expand the network. It is poised to gather momentum in coming months after monsoon season ends in September,” it said.

Tata Power is one of the three major power distribution companies supplying power in Mumbai, the other two being Reliance Infra and BEST.