Electricity demand usually rises in Delhi in summer. (Representational)
The Delhi government today told power distribution companies or discoms to raise the number of call centre attendants and inform people of unscheduled power cuts via SMS. The total electricity demand in Delhi yesterday was 6,361 megawatt or MW while the
temperature hovered around 44.6 degree Celsius.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters that discoms have been instructed to take steps to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
Mr Sisodia said the Delhi government may revive an aborted clause in the Delhi Electricity Act which required discoms to pay compensation to consumers for power cuts exceeding two hours.
"The court had shot it down earlier, saying that we did not have approval of the lieutenant governor... I am meeting him tomorrow and would talk to him about bringing it in practice," Mr Sisodia said.
He said Delhi yesterday saw the highest demand for power "in the entire history of the city" at 6,361 MW. With the capacity of producing 8,000 MW, Delhi has no shortage of power, Mr Sisodia said, adding the city is second only to Mumbai in terms of sustained supply of electricity.
"Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, after analysing the power demand situation in the past few days, has given directions to his chief secretary to ask all the three discoms to increase the number of seats in their call centres," Mr Sisodia told reporters.
"All their phone numbers for complaints should be publicised diligently so that people get to know where to call in case of power failure," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.
All such calls for the day need to be transcribed, analysed and reported to the chief minister every morning at 11 am, Mr Sisodia said.
He said any scheduled power cuts should be displayed on the discoms' websites and in case of any unscheduled outage, the information has be to sent via SMSes to consumers. He requested the discoms to repair malfunction in supply line, if any, and ensure continuous supply.