MSEDCL must bear cost of infrastructure for new connections: Ombudsman

Electricity ombudsman of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has rapped MSEDCL for illegally forcing consumers to pay for infrastructure required to provide new connections. As per MERC norms, the MSEDCL has to bear the cost of extra infrastructure required to provide new connections unless the consumer wants a dedicated distribution facility (DDF). However, MSEDCL frequently asks consumers to pay for electricity poles, cables, transformers etc needed for the same.The MSEDCL has on its own decided that any load above 500 kVA is a DDF and hence consumer must pay for the infrastructure.City realty firm SDPL had sought power connections for its new housing scheme in Dabha. The scheme had 257 flats. In its application submi.....