Discoms asked to split offices

The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has asked Reliance Energy's BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL) and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) to separate their corporate offices and employees, besides shifting the former's consumer-related offices to the area under its jurisdiction in south Delhi.

"In the order, we have asked separation of their (BRPL and BYPL) corporate offices and employees who are common to these two discoms within next two months and report compliance to the commission," DERC Member K Venugopal said.

The commission has also directed bypl to shift all its consumer-related offices to its area of operation in the next two months. The regulator said bills over Rs 4,000 would now be payable only through account payee cheques or demand drafts.

"In case the electricity bill exceeds Rs 4,000, payment for the bill would only be accepted by the licensee by means of an account payee cheque or demand draft," Venugopal said. "No cash payment would be allowed in such cases," he added.

The commission has also asked the utilities to "resort to other available means of finance" to ensure completion of Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP), if the funds under the scheme were not available. However, Venugopal pointed out that the utilities had not projected the availability of APDRP grant for the current year.

DERC has also directed BRPL to maintain the data for sanctioned load in slabs of 0-2 KW and 5 KW and above, Venugopal said.

The commission also directed the power utility to maintain the data regarding the number of consumers, total load sanctioned and energy consumtion, he added.

In order to monitor transmission and distribution losses, the commission directed the discoms to provide the break-up of energy input to the power utility, the energy sold by it and energy billed, along with revenue realisation against billed energy and the district-wise T&D on a monthly basis within 15 days after the end of the month.

Three years after power supply was privatised in Delhi, both the government and residents' welfare associations have expressed displeasure with the performance of the BSES discoms.

Faulty meters, inflated bills and inadequate redressal of consumers' problems are some of the major complaints identified by both the government and RWAS.

Peeved at the situation, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit shot off a letter to Reliance Energy Chairman Anil Ambani, complaining about the performance of his company.

"We had much higher expectations from BSES," Dikshit wrote to Ambani.

The government was even understood to have warned BSES, that it would be forced to review its contract with the discom, if the latter did not pull up its socks.