Now, Escoms to be penalised for power interruptions

Consumers of Bescom and other electricity supply companies (escoms) can soon get a compensation of Rs 1,000 per day if the companies fail to ensure power supply as per the rules.

In a major step that seeks to give power to the consumers, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has notified draft rules for consumers’ rights and invited the suggestions of the public in the next 30 days.

The KERC (Electricity Consumers’ Rights, Duty to Supply Electricity by the Licensees’ Standards of Performance) Regulations, 2021, seeks to focus on consumer satisfaction in the digital era by bringing transparency and accountability in the workings of the Escoms.

The rules include a proposal to levy automatic payment of compensation by the Escoms for their failure to meet the “guaranteed standards”. For this, the draft rules seek to introduce duties for the Escoms, starting from acknowledging request for a new connection or enhancement/modification of load or voltage level to the deadline to fulfil such request.

Also read: Power consumers to get more rights

In places where electricity supply doesn’t require building new substation or extension of distribution mains, Escoms have to provide power within 7 days from receipt of application in metro cities and 15 days in municipal and 30 days in rural areas. Where new infrastructure is required, officials will have 45 to 180 days, depending on the load. Failure to comply will attract a penalty of up to Rs 1,000 for each day of default.

The rules also focus on reliability of supply with Escoms told to provide power 24X7 with the commission set to fix ‘lower hours’ of supply to some categories of consumers like agriculture.

KERC has sought to introduce a mechanism to calculate power interruption duration and frequency of interruption and has suggested 3 to 10 minutes as the minimum outage time to calculate the mechanism.

However, consumers noted that the duration suggested by KERC may fail to consider the aspects where interruptions take place for less than a minute at higher frequency.

“Multiple power cuts within short duration damage fuses and stabilisers. Consumers can understand when Escoms cut power for a fixed time on rare occasions. However, the unscheduled cuts are a major problem that cause major problems,” said Girish Nayak, a consumer from Peenya.

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