Facing electricity supply issues? You may soon get automatic compensation
The ministry of power has, for the first time, published a detailed set of draft rights for electricity consumers. While the Electricity Act, 2003, has a consumer charter, the latest draft empowers consumers with new rights. The draft Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020, is open for comments from stakeholders. Here are some of the proposed rights and what they mean:
New connections to have prepaid/smart prepaid meters: No power connection should be without a prepaid or a smart prepaid meter. Prepaid meters entail a mobile phone like recharge, so consumers can pay only for as much electricity they use. This will help reduce wastage and resolve issues of delayed or incorrect billing. Smart prepaid meters can be remotely operated.
Online bill payment: For where prepaid meters are not installed, the draft rights propose that beyond ~1,000, electricity bill be paid online. Draft suggests rebate for digital bill payments. Several power discoms allow online payments. This may face snag in rural areas where bills go beyond ~1,000 but digital payment are not prevalent. In urban areas, the move will improve revenues of discoms.
Reliable power supply: The draft rules have laid down the principle of 24x7 power supply to consumers as their right. It, however, has said that for some categories like agriculture, the specific state electricity regulatory commission (SERC) can specify lower hours of supply.
Compensation to consumers:
Some SERCS have provisions for compensation to consumers for supply issues, but the draft will pave way for automatic compensation to consumer under the Act. A consumer can claim compensation for no or interrupted supply, and for delays in resolving issues. Shantanu Dixit, group convenor, Prayas Energy Group, said it will, however, be “important to build consumer confidence through effective monitoring, learning from pilot deployment, and stringent measures to ensure data privacy”.
Electricity prosumer: Globally, prosumer (where a consumer installs a renewable energy system at his premises and sells excess power back to the grid) is a fairly common trend, but this is a latest phenomenon in India. The draft rights have said discoms need to ease the process application. So, any energy sold by consumer would be adjusted against the supply made by the discoms.