Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has brought cheers to the power consumers in the national Capital as they will be paid an enhanced compensation from the discoms in case of outages as the DERC has issued the revised ‘Supply Code 2017’ notifying Delhi Government’s policy for compensation in case of electricity supply interruptions.
As per the new regulations issued by the DERC on Wednesday, the discoms are liable to compensate their consumers for failing to provide uninterrupted power supply as well as for other defaults in ensuring the same.
The DERC has notified the compensation policy for Delhi electricity consumers. The DERC has issued the revised Supply Code 2017 with the third amendment on the directions issued by the Delhi Government.
With the amendment, in case of unscheduled power cuts lasting more than one hour, the consumer will be paid compensation of Rs 50 per hour for first two hours and Rs100 per hour thereafter. If interruption reoccurs, the compensation will be paid from the initial default, DERC said in a statement.
In case of un-scheduled power cuts, the compensation shall be payable automatically by the discoms to all the affected consumers without requiring a claim to be filed by the consumer, it said.
According to the DERC code, “A confirmation message shall be sent by the discom to the consumer after restoring power supply mentioning date and time of power restoration”.
The discoms would also submit a report of all such credited compensations to DERC on weekly basis. “In case the discom determines that no compensation is payable for the power cut, the consumers can approach the Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum (CGRF) and further Electricity Ombudsman,” it said.
“If the compensation claim of the consumers for unscheduled power cut is upheld by the CGRF or Ombudsman, the amount of compensation in such cases shall be Rs 5000 or five times of the compensation payable originally, whichever is higher.
In case of scheduled outages the compensation shall be payable after 12 hours or in case outage extends beyond 6 pm whichever is earlier, the DERC statement explained.
It also said that in case of complaints of meter that is burnt or stolen, the power supply has to be restored within three hours. Thereafter compensation will be payable on the above rates on an hourly basis. It further stated that for other performance related issues, the affected person can lodge the claim with the concerned discom within 60 days.
“The new code will bring big relief to the power consumers of Delhi. The Delhi Government has been continuously trying to get the rules to come into effect. This is first of its kind initiative in the country where the consumers will get compensated for power outages and other defaults”, a Delhi Government official said.