UP electricity ombudsman slaps notice on power utility

Power consumers have been facing hiccups in bill submission due to failure in server being serviced by a private firm

The state electricity ombudsman has come down heavily on Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) for "inaction and casual attitude" in the aftermath of the failure of its billing server.

The UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) has slammed LESA for failing to provide relief to consumers who faced hardships depositing their bills.

LESA serves over half a million power consumers and its monthly billing is to the tune of Rs 170-185 crore.

Since last month, the power consumers have been facing hiccups in bill submission due to server failure being serviced by a private company. Consequently, the online billing centres could not function seamlessly and consumers were unable to deposit bills on due dates.

On a petition by UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, the ombudsman had directed LESA for making arrangement for smooth submission of bills and extending due date.

However, LESA reasoned it was tedious to ascertain if a bill defaulter was a bona fide consumer or had defaulted deliberately. As such, the due date could not be extended.

Dissatisfied with LESA's rejoinder, UPERC slapped a notice on the former for not making any proper/adequate alternative arrangements for making payments.

"On the contrary, the onus of responsibility was put on consumers to furnish proof of their making efforts for payment, whereas, no arrangements were making for making payments, in violation to Clause 6.10 (c) of Electricity Supply Code, 2005," UPERC secretary Arun Kumar Srivastava wrote in his missive to LESA general manager Shamim Ahmad.

Ahmad has been asked to explain why proceedings under Section 142 of Electricity Act, 2003 may not be initiated against him. On numerous occasions, LESA had come in UPERC's line of fire earlier for other matters. In January 2013, LESA's decision to wind up its control room had come under the ombudsman's notice.