Now, discoms will pay you if they fail to fix outages in time

NEW DELHI: Delhi's power regulator, DERC, on Monday made consumers entitled to compensation from distribution companies for outages beyond a stipulated time and other disruptions in supply that aren't fixed within the period spelled out by the regulator. Penalties can go up to Rs 100/hour. As per DERC's notification, the Delhi Electricity Supply Code and Performance Standard regulations will become effective immediately.

Last week, the Delhi government had directed DERC, under section 108 of the Electricity Act, to finalise penalties in the regulations within a week. The move followed frequent power cuts earlier this month in the midst of an intense heatwave, which the discoms attributed to local faults.