Consumer News

Consumer is king

The rules cover 11 key areas, encompassing the obligation of the distribution licencees, metering arrangements, release of new connections, and a grievance redressal and compensation mechanism, among others. Discoms will now have to compensate consumers for long power cuts, delays in granting electricity connections, and other such lapses in service. For instance, as per the new rules, new connections should be provided by discoms within seven days of receiving the request in metros, 15 days in other municipal areas, and 30 days in rural areas — failure to comply with these timelines will result in penalties. Currently, some state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) do have provisions for compensation if the stated performance benchmarks are not met. However, not all states adhere to them, or have user friendly procedures for receiving the compensation. The new rules attempt to fix this by paving the way for an automatic compensation mechanism. However, there is some concern that these rules violate the domain of the SERCs. Some experts have also argued that they may be inconsistent with the performance benchmarks that have already been specified by SERCs. But, the real challenge will lie in their effective implementation.