BSES records increase in power consumption,NDPL registers dip

Ghosh said while there had been an increase in consumption across the board,at least 35 per cent of its consumers had beaten that trend. “NDPL sent out 10 per cent more in energy in July and 12 per cent more in August this year than what was sent out in the same period last year. Yet there are many who have actually managed to decrease their consumption,” he said.

However,NDPL’s statistics also show that the remaining 65 per cent of their domestic consumers have shown,on an average,a 20 per cent increase in power consumption.

Meanwhile,Chairman of the Public Grievance Cell,Power department,Justice R C Chopra has written a letter to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) regarding the issue of inflated bills. “There is a sudden spurt in complaints related to excessive bills especially for the BRPL and BYPL areas,while such grievances against NDPL have increased only marginally,” the letter reads.

Justice Chopra has written that between September 1 and 6,the Cell received 381 grievances against BRPL and 87 against BYPL. This is “against an average of 40-50 grievances per month against wrong/excessive billing.”

Urging the regulator to deeply scrutinise the matter,Justice Chopra has written,“We are still unable to comprehend as to how electricity bills can increase by 100 or 200 per cent for such large number of consumers under BRPL and BYPL and not for NDPL when weather conditions for all were similar.”

A senior official in the DERC said,“It’s strange but even we have been receiving similar complaints and we are not even a grievance cell. We now intend to have BSES individually assess each complaint. So far,they have only provided general reasons for an increase.”