Chennai: Amid a flood of complaints over three-fold spikes in electricity bills, Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL) conducted a statewide verification and found that billing errors caused only a small fraction of the unusually high bills. Of the 3.7 lakh domestic connections flagged for sharp increases in consumption charges in June and July, discrepancies were detected in around 2,000 cases.Over the last few weeks, social media was abuzz with power bill complaints. Many complained that their bills shot up manifold. TNPDCL chairperson and managing director V Arun Roy directed the field officials to conduct a reinspection drive from Aug 1. Though he had ordered it to be completed by Aug 7, the inspections went on till Thursday.“The billing software flagged 3.7 lakh services across the state for recording unusually high power bills, and they were taken up for inspection. However, only about 2,000 services were found to be wrongly assessed. This scale of human error is unavoidable. Most of the steep bills were linked to a genuine increase in power consumption,” said a TNPDCL official.Of 3.5 crore electricity services, nearly 2.6 crore services are domestic connections. Around 1.3 crore consumers are assessed in a bi-monthly billing cycle. “Power consumption was unusually high in July due to hot and humid conditions. We recorded an all-time high power consumption in July for the first time,” added officials.TNPDCL has instructed the officials to credit the excess amount in wrongly assessed cases for future consumption. “For other consumers, we have instructed officers to patiently explain how such consumption charges were arrived at and show the data downloaded from meters,” added the official.On the other hand, the free power consumer base has increased to 1.2 crore connections after the TVK govt extended the scheme for up to 200 units instead of 100 units for those consuming up to 500 units in two months.In June, 59.31 lakh consumers did not pay any power bill as they consumed less than 200 units, and in July, the number of consumers paying zero bills rose to 60.92 lakh. TNERC has directed the state govt to release ₹1,545 crore to TNPDCL as an additional subsidy due to the scheme extension.
