VIJAYAWADA: The next time power distribution companies (Discoms) take over four hours in urban areas and over 12 hours in rural areas to rectify normal fuse-off calls, the consumers will be ‘automatically’ entitled to a compensation of Rs 100, if the amendment proposed by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (APERC) to licensees’ standards of performance (SoP) regulation is notified.
The commission, following the recent notification of Electricity (rights of consumers) Rules, 2020, by the Centre, has decided to introduce automatic payment of compensation for Discoms’ failure in delivery of certain ‘critical’ services through an amendment to the existing SoP norms to fix the responsibility on Discoms to improve themselves.
The commission, in its draft regulation of amendment uploaded on Friday, said that it noticed during periodical reviews that the compensation claims by the consumers aggrieved by the failure of the Discoms in meeting the guaranteed standards of performance were “very few”.
“Such fewer claims, despite the existence of SoP Regulation for more than 16 years, leave no scope for the Discoms to improve their performance. Therefore, the commission felt it appropriate to prescribe automatic payment of compensation by the Discoms for their failure to meet the guaranteed standards of performance in respect of certain critical areas,” the Commission noted.
The critical areas the commission was referring to for introduction of automatic compensation payment, in addition to fuse-off calls, include processing applications for new connections/additional load, release of new connections, network expansion required for release of new supply, and wrongful disconnection. If the Discoms fail to meet the time standard, the consumers will automatically be entitled to receive Rs 100 as compensation in case of default or for each day of default depending on the category of service. All that the consumers have to do is to raise a complaint.
“The automatic payment of compensation mechanism, in certain service areas, is expected to push the Discoms to strive for improving their quality of performance and enhancing their service standards,” the commission noted. The commission said that in other critical areas such as overhead/underground cable breakdowns, distribution transformer failures period of scheduled outage, voltage fluctuations, meter complaints, resolution of complaints on consumer bills, reconnection after disconnection due to non-payment of bills, and transfer of services, the automatic compensation payment is not contemplated currently. The APERC put up a public notice inviting views on the same from stakeholders. The submissions can be made until 5 pm of March 15.