Amid the current lockdown in the State due to the rising number of cases of the novel coronavirus, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) will not be sending its staff to collect meter readings this month.
Instead it will compute the month’s bill on the average meter reading for each consumer over the last 12 months. Consumers also have the option of recording their meter readings using the Mahavitaran app.
An MSEDCL official said they were following directives issued by the Maharashtra Energy Minister, Nitin Raut. “All our field staff are prepared and on duty to cater to any disruption in electricity. We have set up a total of 17 control rooms across the State,” a senior MSEDCL official said.
MSEDCL will also not disconnect the meters of any of their consumers until March 31. A senior MSEDCL official said, “All the bill payment centres of MSEDCL will be functioning. We have taken adequate measures to ensure that social distancing is maintained everywhere. We have also ensured the availability of hand sanitisers at these centres. Other payment centres such as banks will have to take a call on whether they want to provide this service too.”
The official said there was an excess supply of power as peak demand had reduced from around 20,000 MW in the first week of March to around 18,000 MW. He attributed this dip to many industries suspending operations due to the lockdown imposed across the State.
The MSEDCL is the State’s largest power distribution company and caters to nearly 2.6 crore consumers.
