The Hindu : New Delhi News : RWAs discuss ToD metering with DERC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

RWAs discuss ToD metering with DERC

Staff Reporter

They allege that consumers will end up paying more now

ToD scheme was planned to encourage consumers to switch to using power during non-peak hours
‘Methodology applied in the scheme is suspect, it is a backhanded way of increasing tariffs’

NEW DELHI: Unconvinced by the claims of the Delhi Government’s Power Department that time-of-day (ToD) metering of electric supply would benefit consumers, the United RWAs Joint Action (URJA) has begun a series of meetings with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission to discuss the issue.

Central Delhi representatives of URJA who met DERC officials discussed the issue of implementing ToD in the residential sector. The Power Department has proposed to introduce ToD in the residential sector to encourage consumers to switch to using electricity during non-peak hours,

While the Department claims that consumers will be able to bring down their bills by consuming electricity priced at a lower slab during non-peak hours, the RWA representatives claim otherwise. They have alleged that by increasing tariffs for peak hours, consumers will be forced to pay for electricity at much higher rates.

URJA members claimed that DERC officials who met a delegation were “forthcoming on most issues and threw up the wide disparity between the Commission’s views and those of the Delhi Government and the discoms”. “On the issue of ToD metering, we are very clear that the methodology was suspect. It was a backhanded way of increasing tariffs and we conveyed to the officials that we would oppose it,” said S.P. Gupta, general secretary of Rajendra Nagar RWA.

“Strangely and fortunately, the DERC official clarified that the ToD experiment did not have its approval and was not mooted or supported by the Commission and it remains a project being run by the discoms,” Mr. Gupta said.

D.M. Narang of New Rajendra Nagar RWA said DERC official also confirmed that the issue of tariff hikes was not under discussion. “When we pointed out that there had been a significant reduction in theft, why was the benefit of such recovery not being passed on to consumers, the official said that the reductions were being used to offset increase in costs but confirmed that this was being used as a mechanism to keep tariffs at the current levels”.

“The onus of bringing down losses rests with the discoms as they have been provided with every support and facility by the Government, and therefore there can be no question of tariff increase,” URJA members informed DERC. On whether DERC had approved the specifications of the meters, the delegation members said: “We are concerned that the approval by DERC has come after the meters have been installed and that makes the order tailored to fit existing meter specification and this decision is not above board,” said R.L. Dua, another member of the delegation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi