Unscheduling the Scheduled Power Outages by Electricity DISCOMs in Haryana

Distribution of Electricity in India is governed by Electricity Act 2003 and the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions frames the rules and regulations including benchmarking the services with an objective of looking after interest of the electricity consumers.

The supply of electricity in Haryana is through State Owned PSUs namely Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVN) and Uttari Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd (UHBVN) and the distribution of electricity to the consumers through these licensees  is regulated by Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC).

One of the major problem being encountered by any consumer is the continuity and uninterruptible  supply of the quality electricity to the last mile stone consumer. However, the supply gets interrupted frequently and whether this interruption is scheduled or unscheduled is best known to the DISCOMs.

I have tried to analyse the regulations and benchmark of scheduled outages to find out whether the HERC is being fed the correct input by the DISCOMs or HERC is just receiving the reports/ returns and the reports are consigned to the store rooms without the reports / data being analysed.

Scheduled Outages

“Period of Scheduled outage” means a period during which there is a reduction of capacity or taking out-of-service of a generating unit, power station or part of the transmission system or distribution system for scheduled repairs and preventive maintenance in a planned manner. If the above repair and maintenance activity could not be carried out within the time frame laid down in this regulation on account of abnormal circumstances of a given job, the area in-charge need to obtain approval of CE/ SE (Operation) for the extended period of outage. The licensee would submit a monthly report of such cases to the Commission. Period of forced outage will not be covered under it.

Procedure for payment of compensation

The "Automatic" mode of payment of compensation requires the Licensee/ DISCOMs to pay the compensation amount to the affected consumer automatically in the next billing cycle, following non-compliance of a particular standard.

Regulations on scheduled outages

1. The DISCOM/Licensee is required to intimate the consumer at least 24 hours in advance and such outages can not exceed 8 hours on any day.

2. The supply is required to be restored by 6 PM on any day of scheduled outages.

3. In case the licensee does not the meet the performance standard as laid down, the Licensee is required to compensate consumers with a payment of Rs. 200/- to each affected consumer and such compensation is "Automatic" .

4. As per regulations, The actual payment of monetary compensation to the consumer w.r.t the provisions of these regulations would start from 1st August 2005 for urban consumers and from 1st August 2006 for rural consumers.

As it is revealed from the following table of SMS details, the DHBVN has failed to meet standard of performance as mandated by Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC). None of the affected consumer including the author has been credited with an amount of Rs. 200/- per default as automatic compensation to the consumers for not meeting performance standards laid down by HERC. Many a times, DHBVN also failed to intimate the consumers for the outages. HERC may like to pursue the details and see if the DISCOM DHBVN has been submitting the correct returns as mandated by the regulations laid for the Licensees and whether these returns reflects the true picture of the compliance report. The screen shots of the SMSes are attached with this article. Necessary penal action may kindly be initiated/ pursued appropriately. 

Details of the SMSes as received from DHBVN by a consumer of DHBVN residing at Sector 37 Faridabad, Haryana

S.No	Date and Time of SMS Intimation		Power Cut			Reason of Power                     Interruption
	Date	Time	Date	Time From	Time To
1	23/03/2019	18.44	23/03/2019	18.42	19.43	Scheduled Miscellaneous
2	19/04/2019	13.58	20/04/2019	11.00	13.00	Scheduled Maintenance
3	01/06/2019	20.11	01/06/2019	20.10	20.45	Failure of Grid Supply
4	03/06/2019	02.16	03/06/2019	02.15	04.00	Failure of Grid Supply
5	04/06/2019	10.12	04/06/2019	10.10	12.00	Scheduled Maintenance
6	30/06/2019	17.50	30/06/2019	17.19	17.52	Scheduled Feeder Failure
7	02/07/2019	12.11	02/07/2019	12.09	14.00	Failure of Grid Supply
8	06/07/2019	12.10	06/07/2019	12.09	22.50	Scheduled System Improvement Work
9	20/07/2019	17.20	21/07/2019	10.00	14.00	Scheduled System Improvement Work
10	04/08/2019	11.27	04/08/2019	11.26	13.30	Scheduled System Improvement Work
11	07/09/2019	15.52	07/09/2019	15.28	16.28	Scheduled System Improvement Work
12	29/09/2019	10.19	29/09/2019	10.18	14.30	Scheduled Substation Maintenance
13	29/09/2019	14.46	29/09/2019	14.45	16.00	Scheduled Substation Maintenance
14	22/12/2019	12.00	22/12/2019	11.47	15.00	Scheduled System Improvement Work
15	04/02/2020	13.01	04/02/2020	12.40	15.00	Scheduled System Improvement Work
16	27/04/2020	12.46	27/04/2020	12.25	17.30	Miscellaneous
17	28/04/2020	10.48	28/04/2020	11.00	16.00	Miscellaneous
18	29/04/2020	13.08	29/04/2020	13.01	15.00	Maintenance
19	01/05/2020	16.24	01/05/2020	14.11	18.00	Miscellaneous
20	02/05/2020	14.02	02/05/2020	13.51	17.00	Miscellaneous
21	02/05/2020	18.30	02/05/2020	18.22	21.00	Miscellaneous
22	25/05/2020	13.00	25/05/2020	12.51	13.23	Miscellaneous

The DISCOM has defaulted in:

• No advance intimation in case of scheduled outages as per regulation
• The Outages even extended to period beyond 18.00 hrs as in S.No. 1 and 8
• No automatic payment of the compensation to the affected consumer

A copy of this article is being mailed to the service provider including their SDO, XEN, Superintending Engineer and Managing Director for their views and comments if any. The comments if any received shall also get published.