With CAG audit lost in trial, now DERC will audit DISCOMs

To fix accountability on power distribution companies, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) will conduct a complete audit of their physical assets and distribution system in the capital.

To fix accountability on power distribution companies, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) will conduct a complete audit of their physical assets and distribution system in the capital.

The regulator will go through 100% of discoms’ documents related to tendering, evaluation, purchase orders, store documents, road restoration receipts, invoice, payments and so on.

The move assumes significance as the CAG audit on discoms sought by the Aam Aadmi party government continues to be under subjudice. Under the given circumstance, power regulator DERC is the only quasi-judicial body that can take up such a task according to the Electricity Act.

This week, the DERC floated tenders to appoint consultants to review the capital expenditure, capitalisation, distribution network and conduct physical verification of assets of the three discoms in the city — BRPL (BSES Rajdhani Power Limited), BYPL (BSES Yamuna) and TPDDL (Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited).

The audits will be done at two different levels to verify the claims of discoms over a period of seven years beginning from the financial year 2004-05. “The Commission intends to hire consultancy services for under taking review of capital expenditure, capitalization and physical verification of assets of DISCOMs namely, BRPL, BYPL & TPDDL for the FY 2004-05 to FY 2005-06 & FY 2011-12 to FY 2015-16,” the document states.

Till now, DERC used to conduct physical verification of only up to 25% of the discoms. However, in this audit, the regulator is going to go through 100% of their documents related to tendering, evaluation, purchase orders, store documents, road restoration receipts, invoice, payments and so on.

The second part of the audit would involve an ‘energy audit of the distribution networks’ of the discoms for the period commencing from April 1, 2016 up to September 30, 2017. “The aim is to establish and verify distribution losses of the distribution network area. The report will include installation and accuracy of meters on feeders, import/export points, validity of data for energy sales, revenue billed, collection , the methodology adopted by discoms for assessment of energy sales for unmetered consumers, validation of distribution loss figures as established by the utility and the deviations,” an official said.