SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The State government will have to compensate electricity consumers in the State within 90 days by adjusting their power bills if it fails to meet specified performance standards in power distribution as specified by Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) regulations.
As per the new regulations, consumers can claim compensation for power supply failures, delays in billing, resolving billing complaints, addressing meter issues, restoring power after faults, managing voltage fluctuations, and fixing distribution network problems.
"The payment of compensation shall be made to the affected consumers as per the rates specified under Schedule III of the regulations by way of adjustment against current and/or for future bills from supply of electricity within 90 day from the date of violation of specified standards," the notification said.
The notification, notified in official form for the State of Goa and Union Territories (Standard of Performance for Distribution Licensees) (First Amendment) Regulations, 2024, has specified the list of performance parameter standards and the compensation payable to individual consumers in case of violation of standard.
The specified compensation amount ranges from Rs 40 to Rs 1000 per day or hour of delay.
The notification has also mentioned introduction of new indices that the state government must use to measure their performance such as Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI), Customer Average Interruption Frequency Index (CAIFI), Momentary Average Interruption Frequency Index (MAIFI), System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI).
As per the notification, a consumer can seek redress through the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) if compensation is not paid.
Goa govt will also have to establish an online platform within six months for consumers to lodge grievances and seek compensation.
"The distribution licensee, within six months from the date of notification of these regulations shall create an online facility on which consumers may register their complaints and claim the compensation. The information in this regard shall be widely circulated amongst consumers through appropriate means including mass media, bills, SMS, emails or by uploading on licensee’s website,” it said.
It has asked the government to provide all services through a common Customer Relation Manager (CRM) System to get a unified view of all the services requested, attended and pending, at the back end for better monitoring and analysis.
For new electricity connections, timelines are set at 3 days for metro cities, seven days for Urban Areas, 15 days for rural areas, and 30 days for rural islands upon receipt of applications as per the new amendments.
According to the notification, restoration times for power supply faults range from four hours to 48 hours depending on the nature and location of the issue.
