Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (“APERC”), Hyderabad has amended APERC (Licensees’ Standards of Performance) Regulation, 2004 vide notification dated 04.06.2021. The APERC (Licensees’ Standards of Performance) Regulation, 2004 specifies the guaranteed standards of performance being the minimum standards of service that a distribution licensee shall provide to the individual consumers and the overall service standards which the licensee shall seek to discharge its obligation as a licensee. The new APERC constituted after bifurcation of state, adopted the above regulation along with two amendments.
Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (Licensees’ Standard of Performance) Third Amendment Regulation, 2021 comes into force on June 4, 2021. The amendment makes the following changes in the Regulation:
- Manner of payment of compensation under Schedule II of Principal Regulation 4 of 2004 (amended from time to time): The licensee shall pay the compensation amount to the complaining consumers automatically. The consumers will be required to make claim for non-complaince, within 30 days of violation of service standard by the licensee, to senior officer as designated by the licensee. The same officer shall be responsible for monitoring compliance and submitting periodical reports to the commission.
- Following new paras are inserted by the amendment under Schedule II of the Principal Regulation 4 of 2004 (amended from time to time):
8. Liability to pay compensation by the Licensee is subject to exceptions provided under Clause 6 of the Principal Regulation 7 of 2004.
- The Licensees shall sent a report to the Commission on quarterly basis indicating the cases in which payment of compensation was paid and also the cases in which cases were denied clearly mentioning the reasons ( including the reasons due to force majeure conditions) for failure to meet guaranteed standards of performance as per Annexure-I of this regulation, for scrutiny of the Commission. On such Scrutiny, the Commission shall decide whether denial is proper or not. In the latter event, the Commission will direct the licensee to pay compensation.
- During Force Majeure events, the Licensee shall issue public notices, clearly specifying the intended date within which the services will be restored, after studying the field conditions. Further, the Licensee shall submit the reports to the commission about the force majeure events within 30 days of the occurrence of such events as per Annexure- 2 of this regulation. If the services are not fully restored within the intended date mentioned by the Licensees, the consumers shall be compensated for the same. However, if the Licensees feel that the failure in restoring the services within the intended date is due to the reasons beyond their control, they may approach the Commission for exemption from payment of compensation. The Commission will then absolve the Licensees from the liability to compensate the consumers if it is satisfied that such default is for reasons other than those attributable to the Licensees and further that the Licensees have otherwise made efforts to retore the services.
- All necessary steps shall be taken by Licensees for duly publicizing the toll-free number to be contacted by the consumers for redressal of their complaints.”
*Tanvi Singh, Editorial Assistant has put this story together.
