Failure of the State power utility — Punjab State Power Corporation limited —to replace defective meters timely has proved costly.
The State power regulator — Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) — has imposed a whopping Rs1 lakh as penalty for the “delay” has not only caused “unnecessary harassment” to the consumers, but has also resulted in revenue loss.
The Commission, in its order, has observed, “Non-compliance of Standards of Performance is not only due to default of individual official or officer but is the result of overall unscientific and defective policy of the Distribution licencee regarding procurement of meters and absence of suitable mechanism for expeditious replacement of defective or burnt meters.”
“In spite of regular monitoring and prodding by the Commission during pendency of this petition for more than one year, the Distribution licencee took the matter very casually making mockery of the ‘Standards of Performance’ laid down by the Commission,” stated the commission, headed by chairperson Romila Dubey.
It added that the submission of wrong certificates of Chief Engineers (Distribution Zones) regarding clearance of key exceptions up to February 28, 2013, has been viewed as a “deliberate attempt of the Distribution licensee to mislead the Commission”.
Taking suo motu notice of fact that there are large numbers of defective meters which need replacement, a detailed notice was issued to Powercom chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) on March 19, 2013.
The Commission has sought explanation from the Powercom as to why action should not be taken against it for not complying with the law and regulations.
PSPCl, also known as Powercom, had given an undertaking that it will replace all the defective meters as per provisions of Supply Code and Electricity Act.
The Commission noted, “PSPCl had assured that all pending requirement of meters would be met by the end of December 2012. PSPCl had further given an undertaking in its reply dated April 11, 2013, to this petition that all defective meters shall be replaced by April 30, and in future, relevant provisions of Supply Code and Electricity Act, 2003, in respect of release of new connections and replacement of defective meters shall be adhered to in letter and spirit... information supplied by PSPCl dated May 3, 2013, in this respect, was far from satisfactory.” The power utility had informed the Commission that there are a total of 1,35,497 defective or burnt meters on March 31, 2013, comprising 1,30,092 single phase meters, 5099 three phase meters, 298 lT CT meters and eight HT TPT meters.