Consumers have always been harried when it came to standards of electricity service, compensations, reconnections. Historically, they have been at the mercy of discoms, which are monopolies. This is going to change soon. For the first time, the government has created an enforceable consumers rights module in the Electricity Act and notified it through the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020.
Across the country, consumers will now have assured standards of service for electricity supply, including 24×7 supplies. It is their right. The state commissions shall notify cap on maximum permissible hours of outage per consumer per year. Many discoms have leakages in their billing collections and are helped by state electricity regulators who stall tariff reforms; they continue to report high T&D losses, have outstanding dues despite central liquidity infusions & then they resort to load shedding to deal with their costs of electricity supply. The net sufferers are people who have to live with long hours of power outages.
With the consumer rights’ architecture, there will be pressure on the discoms to reform. The rules are not optional, since power is in the concurrent list and the central government has the right to frame rules. The state government can strengthen the rules but cannot dilute them.
There are stringent timelines for connection, disconnection, reconnection and shifting. Delays will attract penalties. Consumers will have to be informed of scheduled power outages. In case of unplanned outage or fault, immediate intimation shall be given to the consumers through SMS or by any other electronic mode along with estimated time for restoration.
As regards compensation, for self-identifiable defaults, a consumer will get compensation automatically, for others claims can be filed online. Within six months from the date of notification of the regulations by the commission, the discom shall create an online facility on which consumers may register and claim the compensation amount. A penalty of Rs 1,000 per day is leviable.
Another important power infrastructure reform has been announced by the government in the farm feeder sector. This is the solarisation at feeder-level for agriculture pumps and will be implemented under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme. Through the scheme’s time frame till December 31, 2022, a total of 10 lakh pumps are targeted. Use of indigenously manufactured solar panels, cells and modules have been mandated for this project.
