The UT Electricity Department has failed to meet the deadline set by the Joint Electricity Regularity Commission (JERC) to replace all mechanical and non-working meters. As per the figures submitted by the department before the commission on June 30, around 35,000 meters— both mechanical and non-working electronic — were to be replaced. The commission had directed the department to replace all the meters by September 30. However, only around 5,000 meters have been replaced till now. The defective and mechanical meters add to the transmission and distribution (T&D) loss, which at present stands at 14.50 per cent. The department aims at bringing it down to less than 13 per cent by financial year 2018-19. As per the JERC regulation, all the mechanical meters are to be replaced with electronic meters. The consumers have an option of purchasing their own meters or take it on rent from the department. In its order, the commission had also directed the department to submit a progress report on the phase-wise replacement of defective and mechanical meters, a road map on catefory-wise consumer metering and billing, and the number of consumers by September 30. The electricity department caters to a total of 2.12 lakh consumers, out of which 1.75 lakh are in the domestic category. Of the total, there is regular billing of around 94 per cent of consumers. Criticising the department, UT Powermen Union general secretary Gopal Datt said that the department was lax in its approach of complying with directions of JERC. UT superintending engineer MP Singh claimed that they had purchased the meters required to be replaced. Giving reasons for the delay, he maintained that during the summer season they were forced to deploy more workforce to ensure proper transmission of power and timely detection and repair of fault. “Now that summers are over, we will replace all the meters in the next few months,” said Singh. The department is grappling with a staff shortage as it is managing its affairs with around 950 employees against a sanctioned strength of 1,668. After its inception in 1976, the existing structure of the department has remained unchanged since the last sanction for officer-level manpower was provided in 1992. In the last two decades, there has been a substantial growth in the load and the number of connections has gone up by around 80 per cent.
