While BSES claimed on Monday that there has been a spurt in power consumption in Delhi, distribution company NDPL on Wednesday claimed that statistics in its areas indicate that power consumption has gone down as compared to last summer.

“Nearly 35 per cent of the domestic consumers in our distribution network have shown a 30 per cent decrease in consumption on an average in July and August 2009, as compared to the same period in 2008,” Arup Ghosh, Chief Operating Officer, NDPL, said.

Ghosh said while there had been an increase in consumption across the board, at least 35 per cent of its consumers had beaten that trend. “NDPL sent out 10 per cent more in energy in July and 12 per cent more in August this year than what was sent out in the same period last year. Yet there are many who have actually managed to decrease their consumption,” he said.

However, NDPL’s statistics also show that the remaining 65 per cent of their domestic consumers have shown, on an average, a 20 per cent increase in power consumption.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Public Grievance Cell, Power department, Justice R C Chopra has written a letter to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) regarding the issue of inflated bills. “There is a sudden spurt in complaints related to excessive bills especially for the BRPL and BYPL areas, while such grievances against NDPL have increased only marginally,” the letter reads.

Justice Chopra has written that between September 1 and 6, the Cell received 381 grievances against BRPL and 87 against BYPL. This is “against an average of 40-50 grievances per month against wrong/excessive billing.”

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