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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said the government will not tolerate unplanned power cuts in the city by private distribution companies owned by Reliance Infrastructure and Tata who will have to face penalty for unscheduled load-shedding.
“We will not spare the discoms. We will impose penalty on the companies if power cuts exceed the scheduled levels,” Kejriwal told media persons without elaborating. “The storm of change led by Aam Admi Party will sweep the entire nation,” he said. However, under the law, the government does not enjoy the power of imposing penalty for such cuts.
The minister was responding to queries over complaints by citizens on extended power cuts being observed in the city. The comment comes on the backdrop of the Delhi Congress President Arvinder Singh criticizing the Kejriwal-led government for the rise in unplanned power cuts.
“There is no provision in the Electricity Act of 2003 under which any state government can impose such a penalty. The government has no role in this. Kejriwal’s proposal is outside the purview of the electricity law,” said a former Chairman of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.
A senior official from Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) said the regulator can impose such a penalty under the Performance of Standards (PoS) norms in case unscheduled power cuts exceed 1% of the total energy supplied in a month. “But, that has never happened. The provision has never been used so far,” he said.
Kejriwal also said his government has sought data on power cuts from discoms but the companies have not supplied it. The discoms completely denied the charge.
“We have been supplying the data every day,” said a discom executive adding the companies conduct more planned shutdowns in winter months for network servicing to avoid public inconvenience in summers.
Kejriwal also said his government will set up an independent agency for testing electricity meters to address the consumers’ concern of overbilling. The CM announced launching of websites, helpline numbers and Short Messaging Service (SMS) dedicate to consumers’ grievance on power cuts and corruption.
Kejriwal had earlier this month announced a 50% subsidy on power for consumers using less than 400 units per month. He later managed to secure the Lieutenant Governor’s request to the national auditor for an audit of discoms’ books. Reliance Infrastructure-owned BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna supply power to 75% of the city’s 3.4 million consumers. Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL) caters to the rest.
