Pune: The Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) has scheduled a hearing on Nov 17 on complaints filed by 12 Baner residents over power outages between March and June this year.The residents have sought various records from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) to establish the reasons for the outages, examine preventive measures to avoid recurring power cuts and seek compensation.CGRF is a quasi-judicial body that hears consumer complaints related to electricity supply.“We have received the hearing date. We had to follow up on the case for six months after filing the applications. There were several legal formalities and rounds of correspondence, but we remained persistent in our efforts,” said Swapna Narayan, a Baner resident.On May 17, residents of several housing societies in the Baner, Balewadi and Pashan areas staged a protest against frequent and prolonged power cuts during the summer months. At the time, some of the protesting consumers had said they planned to approach CGRF over the issue.In their complaints, the residents have sought details of the electricity infrastructure, including the distribution transformers, the total number of consumers and their sanctioned load on each substation feeder.They have also asked the forum to direct MSEDCL to provide its standard operating procedure (SOP) for restoring power after outages, along with the restoration timelines applicable to different types of interruptions.The residents have listed several instances of power supply disruptions during the period and the explanations provided by MSEDCL for each outage.In one instance, the power utility attributed the interruptions to increased electricity consumption during the summer months. However, the complainants argued in their statement that a rise in consumption does not, by itself, establish that the repeated interruptions were unavoidable.“We observe frequent power failures. The present case is not an isolated incident but reflects a recurring phenomenon with MSEDCL,” said Girish Galgali, a Baner resident, in his statement to the forum.He further said the forum should scrutinise MSEDCL’s explanations regarding counter overloading, load management, the inability to back-feed power, delays in the availability of expert manpower, multiple faults and proposed network strengthening measures.“The power utility’s records should be examined to assess whether the existing infrastructure has been adequately designed to handle electricity demand across all seasons,” Galgali added.
