Compensation for power failures just one nod away
POLICY LG clears proposed policy, power regulator will now have to notify it
NEW DELHI : Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Thursday approved a proposed policy which would enable consumers to claim compensation up to ₹5,000 from distribution companies for unscheduled power cuts.
The AAP government had cleared a revised compensation proposal and sent it for L-G’S approval. Now, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) will have to notify the policy in order for it to take effect.
Under the new scheme, if there is an unscheduled power cut then the area’s distribution company (discom) will have to restore the electricity within one hour. Failure to do so shall result in a penalty of ₹50 per hour per consumer for the first two hours followed by ₹100 per hour per consumer after two hours.
The L-G took to Twitter to inform chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and power minister Satyendar Jain that the policy proposal is now good to go to the power regulator.
“Approved proposal for issue of policy directions regarding payment of compensation to consumers in case of power failure,” Baijal tweeted.
Kejriwal responded to the L-G by calling the government’s policy “revolutionary”, “innovative” and one that will make discoms “directly accountable to the people”.
DERC officials on condition of
Approved proposal for issue of policy directions regarding payment of compensation to consumers in case of power failure.
ANIL BAIJAL, Lieutenant Governor, Delhi, on Twitter
anonymity said that the commission is yet to receive the proposal from the Delhi government. Under the electricity rules, the power to issue regulations on compensation to consumers lies only with the DERC.
“The only way government can send policy proposals to the commission are by using Section 108 of the Electricity Act. As of now, the DERC has not received it. The commission will analyse it and then notify it, if it deems fit,” an official said.
The policy states that the exemption of initial one hour from the penalty shall be granted to the discoms only once a day, and in case of recurring power cuts for the same consumer the same day, the penalty shall accrue right from the beginning of the duration of the unscheduled disruption.
As per the scheme, the compensation earned by the consumers will be adjusted against their monthly power bill. In case the discom doesn’t pay compensation, the consumers can lodge a complaint with the DERC. The amount of compensation in such cases will be ₹5,000 or five times of the compensation payable, whichever is higher, a government official said.
The issue of compensating consumers for power cuts was floated by Kejriwal way back in 2015. Later in 2016, Kejriwal had alleged that his proposal was shot down by the then L-G, Najeeb Jung.
“The affected consumers will be required to file a “no current” complaint through SMS, email, telephone, mobile apps or official websites of discoms, giving their particulars such as name, consumer account (CA) number, mobile number. The discoms will attend to the complaint and will send a confirmation message to consumers with the date and time of restoration,” a government spokesperson said.
The scheme also states that on expiry of the permissible time limit, the respective compensation amount will be automatically credited to the consumer account number without any manual intervention and a message will be sent to the consumer.