In about two months from now consumers with a three phase connection in the city will be able to know the exact details of power supply disruptions to their premises. Following the directions of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission, power distribution companies in the city are getting ready to change the electricity bill format to include the details of outages.
This is for the first time in the country that a power company will put out the details of outages in the bills dispatched to consumers.
Initially only those consumers who have a three phase connection (a connected load of 11kv and above) will be able to benefit from the change of format. “We have already written to the manufacturers of the electricity meters to make the necessary changes in the new single phase meters so that the service can be extended to the rest of the consumers as well,” said Gopal Saxena, chief executive officer of power distribution company BRPL.
Since the bulk of consumer in the city have a single phase meter, the discoms will have to get the meter manufacturers to make suitable amendments. “Even in the case of three phase meters, which have the provision to record the outage details, we have had to ask the meter manufacturers to provide us with suitable software that can be downloaded into the handheld devices used to take down meter reading,” said Mr. Saxena.
Acting on the basis of suggestions out forth by consumers, the DERC had asked the discoms to generate bills that have a slot to show the total hours during which consumers were not supplied electricity.
The DERC had also made several other suggestions in the billing format that the discoms will now have to adhere to.
The revised format bills will have to include a slot for showing the maximum demand indicator, which will simply show the exact load demand of a consumer. The indicator can be used to ascertain the exact load that consumers must subscribe to and help power companies identify consumers whose demand is much more than what they have sought connection for.
The discom chief said the company has also come out with the new format of the bill that is in compliance with the directions of the DERC.
“We have complied with the orders and made suitable changes. The regulator wanted us to start dispatching the revised bills from July 1, but we have sought more time, since we already have a stock of bills printed as per the old format. We want to finish the stock in the nest four or five billing cycles and have sought the DERC’s permission for that,” said Mr. Saxena.
The bills will also have to show the consumption on a daily basis and also unit wise, the amount of security deposit with the discoms and interest accrued for the financial year.
