Ignoring the directions of Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), the Chandigarh Electricity Department has once again failed to submit the status report regarding consumer metering, reading and billing process in the city.
The JERC had directed the Chandigarh Electricity Department (CED) to submit a detailed and complete report, action plan and road map on consumer meters, condition of meters, total meters before July 22. However, the CED has failed to compile the report in this regard.
Taking suo moto notice of CED for not complying with JERC Regulations 2010 on meter reading and billing, the Commission had in 2012 issued orders to CED to replace the non-working meters and also submit a report, action plan and roadmap on replacing mechanical meters with electronic meters in a phased manner.
The move was aimed at curtailing the transmission and distribution losses. In all, there are around two lakh consumers in the union territory of Chandigarh. And, the meters of around 6,998 consumers are not working while 52,362 mechanical meters are yet to be replaced, as per the previous report submitted to JERC by CED.
Now, the JERC will hold hearing in this regard on July 30. While talking to The Pioneer, MP Singh, UT Superintending Engineer (electricity wing) said, “The work for replacing the mechanical meters with electronic meters is going on. However, the Department could not submit the status report to JERC within the stipulated time.”
JERC will hold hearing on this issue on July 30. The UT Department would seek more time from the Commission to prepare the status report, he added. At present, the Chandigarh Electricity Department is struggling to cut down its transmission losses, which stands at 15.50 per cent.
As per an affidavit submitted before the Commission, the present transmission and distribution losses of the Department stands at 15.50 per cent, which it aims to bring down to 15 per cent in the current year. The CED has set a target of reduction of the losses to 14.50 per cent in 2015-16 and to 14 per cent by 2016-17.
During the last hearing on the issue, the Commission examined the information submitted by the UT Electricity Department and had observed that the information does not depict complete and clear status of phase-wise replacement of mechanical meters with electronic meters. The Commission had observed that the status of mechanical and defective electronic/mechanical meters is not up to the mark and satisfactory. And, the CED is required to replace all mechanical and non-working mechanical/electronic meters without any further delay.
later, in its orders, the JERC had directed the CED to make sincere efforts to replace all defective mechanical/electronic meters and mechanical meters without any further delay. The Commission had further directed the CED to submit detailed and complete report by upto June 20 or before July 22. The JERC had stated that non-compliance of the order would be taken seriously.