The government has amended the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules and brought in a host of changes under sections 5 and 8, which deal with smart meters and time of day tariffs.
The Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Amendment Rules, 2023, mention that the time of day (ToD) tariff specified by the state commission for commercial and industrial consumers during peak hours of the day shall not be less than 1.2 times the normal tariff and for other consumers, it shall not be less than 1.1 times the normal tariff.
"The tariff for each category of consumers shall be displayed on distribution licensee's website and consumers shall be notified of change in tariff excluding fuel surcharge and other charges, at least one month ahead of time," the gazette notification states.
The decision of the government to collect 1.2 times more than the normal power tariff during peak hours had previously came in for criticism from several quarters, with the Telanagana government calling the move "anti-poor".
The notification further stated that all types of smart meters should be read remotely at least once in a day and the other pre-payment meters should be read by an authorised representative of the distribution licensee at least once in every three months.
"The data regarding energy consumption shall be made available to the consumer, through website or mobile application or Short Message Service and the like, provided that the consumers having smart pre-payment meters shall also be given the data access for checking their consumption and balance amount atleast on daily basis," the notification said.
The notification, issued by the Power Ministry on Wednesday, said following the installation of smart meters, no penalty "shall be imposed on the consumer, based on the maximum demand recorded by the smart meter, for the period before the installation date".
"In case maximum demand recorded by the smart meter exceeds the sanctioned load in a month, the bill, for that billing cycle, shall be calculated based on the actual recorded maximum demand and consumers shall be informed of this change in calculation through Short Message Service or mobile application," it further said.