JERC orders dept to issue power bills every month

Chandigarh: The joint electricity regulatory commission (JERC) has directed the UT electricity department to issue the electricity bills to consumers on a monthly basis. The power department was also directed to expedite the Smart Grid Project and start monthly billing on priority. The department has been further instructed to submit the number of domestic consumers and commercial/ non-domestic consumers.Earlier, the UT electricity department had informed the JERC that the Smart Grid Project in operation in sub-division-5 had been completed, except the installation of (61) 11 KV feeder meters. M/s REC Ltd – the implementing agency – will install the feeder meters during the facility management services (FMS) phase, the department informed. So far, 24,213 smart meters have been installed. Besides, the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) centre for online monitoring of various activities has been established, stated the electricity department.Further, the EWEDC (engineering wing of the electricity department, Chandigarh) is under process of privatisation and therefore, the ministry of power dropped the pan city Smart Grid Project during the 8th meeting of the empowered committee of the NSGM (National Smart Grid Mission) held on Oct 12, 2022, it added. The UT electricity department also mentioned that the minutes of meeting had been conveyed by the NSGM vide letter F.No.27/3/2016-NSGM (230074) dated Oct 18 2022. It further stated that the Chandigarh administration vide memo No. 4058 dated Oct 10, 2023 had taken up the matter with the ministry of power to revive the Smart Grid Project for across Chandigarh so that key performance parameters and benchmarking could be improved to bring more efficiency and reliability of power supply in UT Chandigarh.In reply, the ministry of power asked for exploring the possibility for revival of the Smart Grid Project under the ongoing Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) of the ministry. Accordingly, the UT administration vide DO No. 20 dated Feb 1, 2024 had taken up the matter with the ministry for according approval to implement the RDSS in Chandigarh. In March, the JERC directed the UT electricity department to expedite the Smart Grid pilot project and submit the progress report within one month.It was in May 2019 that the JERC had observed that despite repeated directions, the UT electricity department had not moved to monthly billing from bi-monthly billing. The JERC had taken serious note of this and had directed the UT power department to implement monthly billing for all categories of consumers, except agriculture, with immediate effect and submit the quarterly progress of the same to the JERC.