Following the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (DERC) order last Friday declaring that discom BSES will have to provide certain relief measures to consumers who have received abnormally high electricity bills in June, July and August this year, consumers are trying to figure out whether all will be accorded benefits as per the order. Newsline spoke to both DERC and BSES to decode the fine print.

The order states, “The Commission considers that it will be appropriate to install check meters at the premises of all consumers who have filed complaints about inflated billing in any forum like the licensee, DERC, CM’s Office, Public Grievance Commission etc. The reading of such check meters, over a longer period of time (say four to six months) will help determine, to the satisfaction of the consumers, the accuracy of the meters.”

A senior DERC official said the BSES will have to install these check meters at the premises of all consumers who have filed a complaint by November 30, and will remain in place till April 20 next year. The discom will then analyse the data recorded by these meters. If the error margin is found to be more than the permissible limit, the bills of the particular consumer will have to be adjusted accordingly by May 2010.

A senior Power department official said, “We are in the process of compiling a list of the consumers who will get the check meter installed. Since consumers have lodged their complaints with different forums, we will have to compile the information from all these sources. The order is very clear that the check meters will have to be installed in the premises of any consumer who have put in complaints regarding the issue of inflated bills.”

The order goes on to state, “Since there is a possibility of inaccurate bills raised in some cases... the Commission directs that the consumers (who have complained against high billing) be provisionally charged at 30 per cent more than the consumption for these months in 2008 or (the) actual (figure), whichever is lesser, pending a final bill in May 2010 on the basis of readings and analysis of the meters...”