Discoms will have to restore electricity “within an hour”, or be liable to the consumers in Delhi. (File)
The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s scheme to give monetary compensation to consumers for unscheduled and long power cuts has finally got the go-ahead from Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. According to the scheme, discoms will have to restore electricy “within an hour” or else pay the consumers.
Here’s all you need to know about the new power cut policy:
Delhi becomes the first city to compensate consumers for unscheduled power cuts
Calling it a first-of-its-kind pro-power consumer policy in the country, the Kejriwal government on Tuesday got clearance for the power department’s policy to give monetary compensation to consumers in case of unscheduled power cuts. LG Anil Baijal on Thursday gave his nod to the proposal and tweeted: ” approved Approved proposal for issue of policy directions regarding payment of compensation to consumers in case of power failure.”
Reacting to the development, CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted saying its a revolutionary decision.
This is a revolutionary and a v innovative policy of Delhi govt which will make DISCOMS directly accountable to people. http://t.co/XpkSzYCDMb
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 19, 2018
What is the policy?
According to the new policy, if an unscheduled powercut is not restored within an hour of blackout, the power distribution companies or discoms will have to pay a penalty of Rs 50 per consumer for the first two hours, followed by Rs 100 after two hours. The initial exemption of an hour would be granted “only once a day”, failing which the penalty “shall accrue from the beginning of the duration of unscheduled power cut”. The compensation earned by the consumers will be adjusted against their monthly power bill.
What are the benefits of the policy?
A Delhi government official told The Indian Express that the government is of the view that power distribution by private players in Delhi should benefit consumers and be accountable to them.
“The government is of the clear view that power distribution privatisation in Delhi, which was done around 15 years back, should benefit the consumers, and uninterrupted power supply for which they pay, is their right,” the government said in a statement.
What happens if discom fails to pay the compensation?
The statement by Delhi government mentioned that if the compensation is not credited automatically by the discom concerned, consumers can approach DERC/CGRF for resolution and the amount of compensation in such cases shall be Rs 5,000 or five times of the compensation payable, whichever is higher.
What do the experts say?
Domain experts listed “practical difficulties” such as “determination of the reason for the outages” — whether the outage is due to “distribution, transmission or generation failure or consumer’s own installation failure”.
An industry sources told The Indian Express, “Compensation has to be determined on a case by case basis after a proper hearing. An automatic imposition of compensation by way of regulation is not possible.”