Details of Meeting on Power Tariff on Sept. 28th, 2011 : Rajiv Kakria

Dear Mr. Vohra,

It was a good day for consumers on 28th Sept. 2011 at DERC, the issue of Residual Back Flow of current and Matching of Neutral to the Absolute Earth Potential was addressed satisfactorily by DERC, stating that the Supply Codes will have to be adhered to. Let the accusations stop and an awareness campaign be initiated along with RWAs in identifying whether each consumer has got a separate neutral up to the Metering Point with each Connection or not.

In the meeting there were experts of all kinds from DISCOMS, DERC, NDMC, CPRI and others were present. We had our research but no technical support. It was an achievement ...... we had finally brought it to this stage for it to be discussed exclusively.

We managed well .... DISCOMS were aggressive and denied that meters run fast due to Residual Back flow .... they tried to blame the consumer for faulty wiring. We had studied the Electricity Act and told them the DISCOMS are supposed to provide a closed ended separate Neutral up to the metering point .... their after it was the responsibility of the consumer.

We said let the DISCOMS come to the consumer and show him the separate neutral for each meter in the building as the law provides ..... at this they claimed that all three phase meters have been provided with separate neutral. We countered that 90% of consumers in Delhi have single phase meters.

What the consumer needs to understand is that in case of Im-Balance in the three Phases, the current starts to flow in the neutral and the meter records the higher of the current in the four wires. Now suppose one consumer runs two ACs, second consumer uses just a fan and third uses a motor to pump water in the same building or adjacent houses and if they have a common neutral then due to different loads connected to different phases will cause im-balance so the current will start flowing into the neutral ....... now this Residual Back Flow of current in neutral will be higher than the one flowing in the phase of second consumer running just a fan ...... and since meters record higher of the currents the poor consumer ends up paying much higher.

This is technical ..... suffice it to say in case of common neutral the biggest sufferer is the consumer with low consumption and DISCOMS make unearned profits to the tune of upto 50%. We managed to get DERC to direct DISCOMS to ensure separate Neutrals to each consumer and start an awareness campaign for consumers to check if they have been provided a closed ended Neutral for each meter. This will result in huge savings for those not running ACs and other high powered equipments.

The Electricity Act says "The service provider shall provide phase(S), neutral, and earth connection to the consumers. The service provider shall provide separate neutral to each consumer up to the metering point and same shall be used by the consumer. Wherever there is multiple meter installations, busbar arrangement shall be used for neutral, so that looping is avoided".

Further, "When a number of meters are connected to a single distributing mains for registering electricity supplied to different consumer loads, separate service lines - phase(s) and neutral, shall be used for each meter".

The other issue of supply of Stable Power without Spikes and Fluctuations shall also be addressed through strict compliance of Electricity Act wherein the Neutral from the distribution transformer will be matched to the Absolute Earth Potential through deep boring at suitable distance of 3-4 electricity poles. Consumers will notice that there are no such arrangements made by DISCOMS.

DERC directed  DISCOMS to Match Neutral to the Absolute Earth Potential as provided in Electricity Act and ensure Stable Power to consumers so they will not have to spend on transformers to protect their expensive electrical appliances like ACs, Computers etc.

We can look forward to leaner bills and stable power if DERC is able to get the DISCOMS to follow the Law strictly. DISCOMS claim that most consumers have been provided separate neutral which was refuted by RWAS nor are there any deep bores for matching earth potential any where to be seen, therefore the need for field surveys.

Warm Regards,

Rajiv Kakria
GK-I, RWA