Power Ministry seeks comments on draft rules for empowering electricity consumers

To empower electricity consumers in India, the Ministry of Power today released the draft Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 for suggestions and comments from stakeholders by September 30th, 2020.

Even as electricity is part of a concurrent list, the central government intends to bring in best practices for electricity consumers.  The idea is to identify the key services, prescribe minimum service levels and standards with respect to these services, and recognise them as rights of consumers.

The draft includes the provision of reliability of service where the state regulators will fix the average number and duration of outages per consumer per year for the electricity distribution companies (discoms). The draft also includes provisions for compensation and penalty for delay in service automatically by the discoms. The draft bill will also push discoms to bring in a 24/7 call center, web-based interface, and mobile applications for all common services provided to the consumers.