DELHIITES TO GET MONEY FOR UNSCHEDULED POWER CUTS

Kejriwal approves policy to compensate consumers for unscheduled power cuts by electricity discoms, sends file to LG for approval

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday approved a policy to compensate consumers for unscheduled power cuts by electricity discoms in the national capital. The proposal has been sent to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for approval. “According to this new policy, in the case of an unscheduled power cut, the discoms (power distribution companies) will have to restore the electricity within one hour, and failure to do so shall result in a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer for the first two hours and Rs 100 per hour per consumer after two hours,” an official said.

The government hopes that the policy will be approved by the LG. In 2016, Kejriwal had alleged that an order of his government to compensate power consumers for unscheduled electricity cuts was cancelled by the then LG Najeeb Jung. The government noted,

“The Delhi government is confident that the LG will concur with the policy and will endorse this pro-consumer step, which will become a model for other governments in the country,” the official said.

The compensation would be provided to consumers in their monthly electricity bills. "The Delhi government is confident that the LG will concur with the policy and endorse this pro-consumer step, which will become a model for other governments across the country to follow," noted the government.

In case of a power cut, a consumer has to file a "no current" complaint through SMS, email, phone, mobile application or website and along with their name, Consumer Account (CA) number and mobile number. The power distribution company would then attend to the complaint and send a confirmation message to the consumer with power restoration date and time. After the permissible time limit ends, the respective compensation amount will be automatically credited to the CA number without any manual intervention and a message will be sent to the consumer.

Under the policy, discoms will be exempted from paying penalty in the first hour of an unscheduled power cut. For the next hour, consumers will be paid Rs 50, after which compensation will be paid at a rate of Rs 100 per hour. The firsthour exemption from penalty will be available once a day for the discoms. There are three private power discoms including the BSES companies BYPL and BRPL, and the Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) that supply power to the city, barring areas under the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Cantonment.