Ludhiana: PSPCL’s helpline glitch cripples power complaint redressal in district

The software malfunction, which affected the central server at Patiala, prevented complaints registered by consumers from being forwarded to the concerned junior engineers (JEs) and linemen

komal.kumari@hindustantimes.com

State IT chief engineer Vikas Sharma, posted at PSPCL headquarters in Patiala, said the software first became unusually slow before the server stopped functioning completely. (HT File)

A technical glitch in Punjab State Power Corporation Limited’s (PSPCL) 1912 consumer grievance management system on Saturday crippled electricity complaint redressal across different districts, including Ludhiana, for several hours, leaving thousands of complaints pending and disrupting fault rectification across the state.

The software malfunction, which affected the central server at Patiala, prevented complaints registered by consumers from being forwarded to the concerned junior engineers (JEs) and linemen. While consumers continued to lodge complaints through the 1912 helpline, field staff could neither receive them nor monitor outages, resulting in a complete breakdown of the complaint management system until the software was restored around 1 am.

According to PSPCL officials, the issue surfaced on Saturday afternoon when the software suddenly slowed down before becoming completely non-functional. Initially, staff at complaint centres suspected an internet connectivity issue, but after coordination with other districts, it became clear that the problem originated from the state-level server, affecting the entire 1912 complaint management network.

As the system remained down, complaints continued to be registered but were not transmitted to the concerned field officers. With no digital communication available, consumers started contacting local subdivision offices and senior officials directly. In several areas, complaints had to be recorded manually and conveyed to field staff over phone calls, delaying restoration work and increasing response time.

The impact was particularly severe in PSPCL’s Central Zone, Ludhiana, where 45,126 consumer complaints were registered during the day. Focal Point Division reported the highest complaint load with 6,009 complaints, followed by Agar Nagar (5,025), City West (4,731), Sunder Nagar (3,809), Model Town (3,685) and Janata Nagar (3,622). Several other divisions, including CMC (2,488), Lalton Kalan (2,403), Khanna (2,294) and City Centre (2,268), also recorded more than 2,000 complaints, reflecting the widespread impact of the technical failure.

Officials said the software outage also disrupted complaint monitoring, as supervisory officers were unable to track the number of complaints received, pending or resolved during the breakdown. As a result, field teams could not be deployed efficiently, and fault rectification remained affected for several hours.

The system was restored around 1 am, after which pending complaints started reflecting in the software and were forwarded to the concerned field staff. Officials said complaint disposal resumed under the normal process once the server became operational.

State IT chief engineer Vikas Sharma, posted at PSPCL headquarters in Patiala, said the software first became unusually slow before the server stopped functioning completely.

“The system initially became slow due to a technical fault before the server stopped functioning altogether. As soon as the issue was reported, the IT team started restoration work. Since the entire state’s complaint management system operates on a single server, restoring the services took some time. The software was made operational late at night, after which pending complaints started flowing to the concerned field staff and complaint disposal resumed under the normal process,” Sharma said.