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Relief for power cuts may be granted without claim form in Delhi

ByAlok KN Mishra
Jun 10, 2023 01:20 AM IST

The proposal, if implemented, will lead to a reduction in power bills depending on the period of outage

Power consumers in the Capital may soon be automatically compensated for outages in their homes, said state government officials aware of the matter, stressing that the plan will lead to benefits either way — reduce power bills, or ensure discoms minimise cuts.

A senior official in the power department said residents are eligible for rebates over 10 separate scenarios. (HT Archive)
A senior official in the power department said residents are eligible for rebates over 10 separate scenarios. (HT Archive)

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To be sure, the Delhi power department has a provision since 2016 to offer the city’s consumers compensation on electricity bills, at 100 per hour of outage, if the power breakdown exceeds a stipulated time to fix the fault.

However, residents need to separately apply for this, which is cumbersome, and there is little awareness of the compensation policy in any case, officials said. To remedy this, the power department has sent a proposal to the Delhi government suggesting that the compensation be adjusted in bills automatically.

The proposal, if implemented, will lead to a reduction in power bills depending on the period of outage. The proposal will be put before the cabinet after the power minister’s approval.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government provides power subsidy under five categories on a monthly basis, including giving up to 200 units of electricity free irrespective of load for all domestic consumers, and a 50% subsidy to all domestic consumers using up to 400 units with a cap of 800.

A senior official in the power department said residents are eligible for rebates over 10 separate scenarios. However, at least 100 households need to be affected for some of these compensations to kick in.

“These include power supply failures during scheduled outages, for a blown fuse, snapped service line, fault in the distribution line system, distribution transformer failure, among others, that affect more than 100 consumers,” said the official.

“The government has to take a call on making the compensation payment automatic,” added the official, who asked not to be named. “This move will encourage discoms to minimise outages.”

According to Economic Survey 2021-22, load shedding in Delhi has dropped to its lowest level in the last two decades at 0.019% of total consumption. Data on power outages across the Capital was not immediately available. However, officials said that power cuts in Delhi are only due to local factors such as issues related to transformers, feeder lines, and local distribution networks, and are handled by the respective discoms.

“A similar proposal was moved by the government in the previous term, which was later struck down in the high court,” said a Delhi government official.

DERC rules list out deadlines within which discoms must return supply after outages: within two hours in case of outages due to faults in distribution lines or systems that affect more than 100 consumers, within three hours of a fuse breakdown and two hours of a transformer failure. If discoms miss these targets, consumers are eligible for even more compensation.

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“The rules mandate that scheduled power outages should not exceed 12 hours and the restoration of supply preferably by 6pm. In case the power discoms fail to meet the power, restoration criteria there is provision of compensation of 50 per hour per consumer for the first two hours of default. This increases to 100 per hour per consumer,” said a separate official. The above quoted official said the compensation will be awarded through adjustment against current or future bills.

HT reached out to power discoms, which did not respond to queries seeking a comment.

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