Delhi discoms to face fines for power outages

NEW DELHI: Less than a week after power hike came into effect, the AAP government in Delhi announced that it has issued directions to the power regulator to impose daily monetary “penalties” on power distribution companies for "unscheduled power cuts" in the capital.

Power minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday told the media that the government was acting in response to public complaints about unannounced power outages. He also expressed dissatisfaction about the existing mechanism of monthly penalties which, he said, does not have the deterrent effect.

An official statement from the government explained the manner in which consumers will receive penalty amounts from the power distribution companies.

"In case of an unscheduled power cut (whose details do not exist on website) except in force measure conditions, the supply shall be restored within one hour, if it is affecting large area say more than 50 connections. Failure to do so shall result in a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer for first 2 hours followed by Rs 100 per hour per consumer after 2 hours for each hour of default beyond the specified one hour and shall be payable separately to each of the consumers affected by the disruption in supply," the statement said.

The "historic decision", as the government called it, will be implemented by the regulator DERC under section 108 of the Electricity Act, 2003. According to power expert Jayant Deo, who played a key role in setting up the power exchange, this is a good idea but needed to be implemented much before because the law was formed in 2003.