1 Lakh Fabricated Electricity Theft Cases & Human Rights Violations Delhi
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0.1million Fabricated Electricity Theft Cases, Human Rights Violations In Delhi PIL July10, 2010 Honorable Chief Justice of India, Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, National Human Rights Commission, Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi, PIN 110001 Petitioner: – Ravinder Singh, Inventor & Engineer Member URJA Y-77, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016
Opposite Parties: -
1. BRPL/BYPL – BSES Bhawan, Nehru Place, New Delhi - 110 019, India. 2. NDPL - NDPL House, Hudson Lines, Kingsway Camp, Delhi-110 009 3. DERC - Viniyamak Bhavan, C-Block, Shivalik, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi-110017 4. Chief Secretary, Delhi Government. 100,000 Fabricated Theft Cases On Legal Domestic Consumers in Delhi Derogatory and Abusive Press Releases By BRPL/BYPL Gross Human Rights Violations – Arrests and Jail Terms for Innocent Honest Legal Consumers Honorable Sir, Petitioner, a qualified engineer petitioning on electricity, consumer and human rights issues for three decades and on behalf of legal domestic electricity consumers and URJA in Delhi since 2002 to DERC, Lt Gov, MoP etc. but Fabricated Theft Cases and Human Rights Abuse continue and no remedy is given to over 100,000 victims who are mostly senior citizens and pensioners robbed of their lifetimes earnings, baring some isolated cases that went to the High Court, submits this PIL for NHRC investigation and appropriate remedy. Lately DERC & CBI had woken up. (Annex-1 P-10) NDPL gave a figure of Rs.225 crores realized from 11,000 consumers by 7/2006 and BSES 85,000 cases July23, 2008 – over 100,000 cases already fabricated against domestic consumers by three private companies charged upto Rs.5 lakh, is Rs.1000Cr. Fraud on Senior Citizens.
It is unthinkable Ambani Group Company charged by CBI for using Nokia Technology in USPatent 7120441 to cheat PSU [CBI filed the chargesheet earlier this week in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai, under 120- B (criminal conspiracy), 20-A (breach of licence), 21 (unauthorised telegrapy) and 25-C (intentionally damaging or tampering with telegraphs) of the Indian Telegraph Act. Besides, sections 65 (tampering with computer source documents), 66 (hacking with computer system), 85 (contravention of any of the provisions) of the Information Technology Act] pretended to be so innocent that senior citizens could temper with their meters when it is other way round – Actually BRPL/BYPL/NDPL abused GE technology also described in USP 6459258 by installing Programmable Most Expensive Meters purchased on consumers account to purposely run them fast to Cheat Senior Citizens who have no resource to go for legal remedy. Cumulatively this is even bigger Fraud on consumers than Fabricated Theft Cases. (Annexure – 2 P-12-14)
In the case of registered consumers ‘Under Consumer Profiling Since 2002’ visited by Enforcement Staff 2-3 times a month in suspected case ought to have been booked U/S 126 in civil court but ‘Maliciously’ with a view to Extort Heft Fines most cases against registered consumers were Fabricated as Theft Cases U/S 135. In case of electronic meters any ‘By Pass or Tempering of Meter’ is registered in the meters and Meter readers on monthly visits in case of three phase meters can’t miss this therefore Distribution Companies deliberately Fabricate Theft cases U/S 135.
1 Fabricated Theft Cases & Human Rights Violations Power theft in Delhi escalated after 1990 when firstly hundreds of illegal colonies were regularized and DVB was releasing connections selectively and secondly most of the industrial units were directed to shut down for causing pollution and their power connections were cut so they started illegal operations DAE with connivance of corrupt staff. More than 10% of housing units are vacant in view of bad rent laws, good percentage of domestic consumers have more than one home and don’t stay continuously at one place and pensioners and residents who don’t have regular income economize on consumption – this may add to 30% of domestic consumers. In order to balance out illegal sales DVB resorted to excessive billing of Legal or registered Domestic Consumers mostly senior citizens and pensioners. Private Distribution Companies (PDC) exploited the situation to illegally enriched their promoters – amount billed in ‘Fabricated Theft Cases’ were more than purchase value of the DDA flats – 405 times the monthly legal bill. PDC BRPL/BYPL/NDPL took over in July 2002 hired ‘Recovery Agents’ to forcible extract fabricated and inflated bills from consumers visiting 3-4 times every billing cycle but without first correcting the bills of consumers. Even today in gross violations of human rights and rights to legal aid, PDC routinely put victims in police lockup and jail innocent legal consumers within 24 hours but are not obliged by service code to correct the wrong bills for six months – 2-3 billing cycles. When electric connections can be released as fast as mobile phones – PDC insist on ownership documents of immovable properties for maximum delay than simple identification and release prepaid connections to tenants and introduce spot billing. IMPORTANT – PDC has testing devises to test a meter in 60 seconds – but no meter was tested on site in DAE cases. Modus Operandi - 100,000 Fabricated Theft Cases 1. Load factor of domestic connections as per TERI study released by Ministry of Power May2007 is 11.13% (Copy of Page 19 of TERI study and full document in CD attached). BRPL/BYPL/NDPL management always knew it but deliberately ignored load factor in assessing ‘Energy Consumption’ with the result they could declare ‘Every Domestic Consumer A Thief’. For Example – A 3000KW geyser power is cut of in 30 minutes of use but Distribution Companies in their calculation would assume this geyser operating for 24 hours a day 182 days a year. [Load factor means – average duration of running a connected load – 11.13% load factor means connected load running for 11.13 hours per 100 hours.]
Delhi Electricity Supply Code 2002 (f) “Connected load” shall mean the sum of the rated capacities in kW/HP (kilo Watt/ Horse Power) of all energy consuming apparatus including portable apparatus duly wired and connected to the power supply system in the consumer’s premises. Further, connected load shall be calculated after allowing a tolerance of 5%. The connected load shall not include the load of spare plug sockets, stand by or spare energy consuming apparatus installed authorisedly, through change over switch, which cannot be operated simultaneously and load exclusively meant for fire fighting purposes. The equipment which is under installation and not connected electrically, equipment stored in warehouse/showrooms either as spare or for sale is not to be considered as “connected load”. Only heating or cooling use of these apparatus/loads shall be taken into account as per prevailing season (i.e. 1st April to 30th September for cooling use and 1st October to 31stMarch for heating use).
http://www.derc.gov.in/Regulations/DERCRegulations/Regulations2007/SupplyCode.pdf DERC Electricity Supply code 2007 procedure for Theft Assessment Annexure XIII P-127 for Domestic Consumers
Units assessed = L x D x H x F, where Where L is load (connected/sanctioned load whichever is higher) D is number of days per month, during which theft / pilferage is suspected and shall be taken for different categories of use as below: H is use of supply hours per day, which shall be taken for different categories of use as below F is load factor, which shall be taken for different categories of use as below For Domestic Connections – Lx30dx8hrsx40% so load factor is 40% x 8/24 = 13.3% and load factor = 0.133.
2 Multiplying factor to connected load is 13.3% as per latest Code but BRPL/BYPL/NDPL didn’t consider it in computing theft in cases of domestic consumers.
IMPORTANT – In almost all cases of registered domestic consumers if load factor is applied no theft is made out. Origin of Fabricated Theft Cases 2. 19th August 2002 DERC Supply Code didn’t consider Load Factor. As per TERI document average connected load of a domestic consumer is 2.17KW and load factor 11.13%. DERC introduced following procedure to calculate load factor in its 2007 supply code applicable for Domestic Consumers is 13.3% in Annexure XIII. (Copy of 2002 and 2007 Codes in CD.) Fabricated Bills Up to 405 Times Normal Bills When load factor that was 11.13% was not considered every Innocent Consumer who didn’t accept the illegal demands of PDC was framed in Fabricated Theft Cases u/s135. The energy consumption assessed was - 9 Times Load, duration of wrongful theft was presumed 6 months and penal tariff was 5 times and average tariff was mostly charged to highest slab or 1.5 times is given in following paragraph 3. 9 x 6 x 5 x 1.5 = 405 Times 3. As per DERC order of 19th August2002 Section 26.(V) ---- The licensee shall also assess the energy consumption for past six months as per the Tariff Order and prepare final assessment bill on 5 times the rates as per applicable tariff. The consumer shall be required to make the payment within 2 working days of its proper receipt. Against Rs.900/month > Fabricated Penalty Rs.1,98,720 4. This implied without load factor in calculation a 2KW connection would invite (2KWx24hx180d units consumption x 5 x Rs.4.6/unit = Rs.198720 Penalty). BRPL /BYPL/ NDPL actually had raised ‘Theft Bills’ bills of up to Rs.2 Lac to Rs. 5 Lac for legal domestic consumers in over 100,000 cases already.
5. BRPL/BYPL in their PR Advertisements just after takeover in 2002 calculated the energy consumption of a MIG flat to be 298Units per month without Air- Conditioner and 598 units per month with an air-conditioner and 300units per month for every additional air-conditioners. Connected Load as per chart is 2.490KW without air-conditioners (Copy attached) and 2KW for every A/C. Bill amounts were Rs.2350 per month with an A/C and Rs.1450 for every additional A/C and Rs. 900 without any A/C. Since then there is some increase in tariff but also introduction of energy efficient gadgets, CFL, LCD TVs, efficient A/C etc. and reduction in load and electricity consumption. (Annexure - 3)
6. Even average legal domestic consumer in addition to Rs.2700 bill for three months already collected were asked to pay up Rs. 1,98,721 as per above modus operandi of PDC. Violations of IEA 2003 7. IEA 2003 was notified on June02, 2003 that provided limitation of three months for loads below 10KW domestic consumers, DERC allowed six months, against 1.5 Times Applicable Tariff in Act2003, DERC in 2002 allowed five times penal tariff at practically highest tariff slab. 126. (5) If the assessing officer reaches to the conclusion that unauthorised use of electricity has taken place, it shall be presumed that such unauthorized use of electricity was continuing for a period of three months immediately preceding the date of inspection in case of domestic and agricultural services and for a period of six months immediately preceding the date of
3 inspection for all other categories of services, unless the onus is rebutted by the person, occupier or possessor of such premises or place.
(6) The assessment under this section shall be made at a rate equal to one-and-half times the tariff rates applicable for the relevant category of services specified in sub-section (5).
Assessment of 10KW Connection U/S 126 of Act 2003 = 2905 Units
For the convenience of NHRC petitioner has devised a thumb rule for assessing energy consumption of domestic consumers below 10KW category.
10KWx24hoursx91daysx0.133 = 2905 Units in three months – Let us assume tariff rate applicable is Rs.4.5 the assessed bill shall be = Rs.13072. Assuming consumer had already paid or billed Rs.8000/- in three months before the Inspection – the penalty applicable shall be
Rs.13072 – 8000 = 5072x1.5 = Rs. 7608/- (U/s126) and Rs. 15216/- U/s135
But Mayur Vihar consumers were charged Rs.2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh per consumer – 100 Times the Financial Gains to the consumer.
Monthly Domestic Assessment Per KW = 96 Units Monthly Assessment under Act2003 of Domestic Consumption per KW Connected Load = 720x0.133 = 96 units per month.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS – 100K TRAUMTIZED VICTIMS
8. Over 100,000 Victims mostly senior citizens and pensioners were firstly extorted illegally to pay demands of up to Rs. 5 lakh and then taken to police stations and so many even put even in jail.
9. 100,000 Victims were denied legal aid and expert assistance and in most cases even important documents were not provided in gross Violation of Human Rights and Civil Procedure Codes. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060208/delhi.htm#13 Ex. Meanwhile, a mass raid conducted by North Delhi Power in Ashok Vihar revealed more than 80 cases of power theft involving a load of 200 KW. A penalty of around Rs. 21 lacs has been imposed on some of these affluent residents of the colony who had adopted deliberate means to slow down the meters.
Raid was conducted in February2006 when demand is lowest. For average load of 2.5KW normal bill ought to be Rs.500 per month fabricated demand of Rs.25,125 were raised.
NDPL 11,000 cases Realized Rs.14,000/KW And Rs.2 lac/Fabricated Case Since starting operations, NDPL has booked more than 11,000 cases of power theft involving a load of over 161 MW and raised a penalty of Rs 225 crores. The Tribune February8, 2006.
BRPL/BYPL 85,000 Cases, 8KW and Rs.1.68lac Penalty/Case
---x--- New Delhi, 29 December 2008 Press Release
200 KW of power theft unearthed in mass raids, Rs 42 lakh in penalties
In 2008 BSES -
4 - Unearths power theft of 2.5 lakh KW - Books nearly 31,000 cases for power theft - 345 people sent to jail
BSES has unearthed power theft of around 200 KW in mass raids carried out in Daryaganj and Bara Hindu Rao areas recently. A total of over Rs 42 lakh in penalties have also been levied against the accused. Besides domestic use, this stolen electricity was also being used for industrial and commercial purposes. The BSES raiding teams accompanied by Delhi Police and CISF personnel booked cases against 25 people under the provisions of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003. ----x---- For 200KW of DAE NDPL realized Rs.21 Lakh> BRPL/BYPL Rs. 42 Lakhs ----x---- http://www.bsesdelhi.com/new/july08/PressRelease_Dhobi_Theft_July23.html According to a BSES spokesperson “Since July 2002, BSES discoms have achieved considerable success in power theft reduction. During the period, they have booked over 85,000 cases of power theft – cumulatively stealing a whopping 5.85 lakh KW”. - Press Release 23 July 2008 -----x----
Over 100,000 FABRICATE DAE Legal Domestic Consumers Cases Already
FALSE METER TEMPERING CASES 10. Petitioner for Star News carried out campaign against Fast Programmed Meters in 2005 and educated consumers about inexpensive procedures to Test Check their Computer Controlled Meters in few minutes. PDC have ‘Accuchek’ meters and can test meters in 60 seconds but victim’s meters were not tested before taking them away from site and fabricated reports prepared by their own staff to make out criminal cases after few days where none exists.
IMPORTANT: - NHRC may take serious note of the fact that PDC firstly hired ‘Criminals as Recovery Agents’ who would check and take meter readings 2-4 times a billing cycle in addition to meter readers for ‘Load Profiling’ of Consumers – How is that on say 100th visit PDC discover ‘Improper seals of meters and meters tempered in so many ways.’ Meters were taken away to their own private workshops and reports released after considerable time along with Rs.2-5 Lakh DAE case.
Petitioner since 2002 had proposed ‘Passbooks’ for every consumer and all PDC officials to record readings taken and status of seals every time they visit consumers but refused by PDC.
Very Fast Meters - Abuse of ‘General Electric’ Technology
11. PDC since they took over replaced reliable meters 2nd or 3rd time at consumers cost and the last ones are Computerized Programmable Meters based on GE Patented Technology (USP 6459258) that can store more than one program and can be remotely operated very fast, fast and accurate. Details of its technical features MISUSED to run meters fast are given in Annexure – .
DEROGATORY PRESS RELEASES>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> TORMMENTED REGISTERED CONSUMERS Insulting Ghalib, Ram Lila & Krishna Lila Organizers
12.(1) Honorable NHRC may kindly take note PDC don’t provide connections to consumers for months but if bribe them within hours nothing has changed – Tentwalas need temporary connections for few hours for purely temporary structures that are not legal for few hours of use. He barely used 150 units of electricity that cost Rs.500 to PDC but demand rupees tens of thousands as security deposits alone etc. (Reference Press Releases of PDC in this para.)
5 What is the justification of firstly not providing a temporary connection, demanding say Rs.30,000 as security deposit for using Rs.500 worth of electricity and then put him in jail for seven days to extract Rs.10,00,000 as penalty. This 2000 Times Commercial Gains.
More than 0.5 million such functions that need Tents Service are organized annually in Delhi alone, going by the DERC code even drawing extra load for such functions from legal connection is not allowed.
But it is also common knowledge PDC collect Rs.150 per month from lakhs of street vendors for using Rs.10 worth of electricity for operating a CFL lamp at night each. Why can’t PDC provide temporary connection at short notice, connect a meter and charge at the end of it or license tent owners to use temporary connections through PDC legal meters?
Ganpati Organizers may have consumed 5000 units of electricity worth Rs.30,000 but what is the justification of demanding Rs. 40,00,000. IEA 2003 U/S 135(i) provides for ‘Three Times Finanial Gains’ as justified penalty? Penalty of Rs.40 lakh is 133 Times Financial Gains To Consumer.
16 Million Birthdays: Every citizen in Delhi has a birthday – say at least 3milion celebrate – PDC meters are programmed to record Peak Demand. Meters have all the features to Blackmail and Harrass Consumers. All features to Benefit Consumers in meters are disabled like Peak Voltage, Power Outages.
[New Delhi, 12 January 2009 Press Release
Power theft in the land of Ghalib….
Court rejects Ballimaran resident’s bail application twice…sends him to Jail
A Ballimaran resident caught stealing nearly 20 KW of electricity, penalized Rs 6. 2 lakh Stolen electricity was being used for running an illegal Anodizing Plant Power theft accused’ Bail application – including Anticipatory – rejected twice by the Special Court Accused granted bail only in his third attempt and after spending 6 days in jail
Mass Raid @ Kamla Market
9 people booked for stealing 55 KW ‘s of electricity Of this 3 were stealing by way of Direct Theft and 6 through meter tampering A cumulative penalty of around Rs 11 lakh has been levied against the accused]
[New Delhi, November 30, 2007 Press Release
Marriage Pandal owner (Tentwala) remanded to Judicial Custody
Marriage Pandal contractor remanded to Judicial Custody for 7 days The contractor was earlier caught by BSES Enforcement Teams solemnizing a marriage using 30 KW of stolen power When the contractor failed to deposit the penalty amount within the stipulated timeframe, a case was filed in the Special Court ------]
[New Delhi, September 19, 2007 Press Release
Now organizers of a Ganpati Mahotsav caught stealing 107 KW power BSES renews its appeal to all such organizers to take ‘temporary electricity connections’
6 Ganpati Mahotsav organizer in Karol Bagh caught stealing over 107 KW of electricity – thanks to a real Ganesha bhakta
According to the Indian Electricity Act, 2003, organizer faces a penalty of Rs 40 Lakhs ------. ]
[Full Text of Quoted Press Releases in Annexure - C. All available details in CD]
DISHONEST SERVICE CONTINUES FOR EIGHT YEARS 13. PDC in its rejoinder ‘SR-22’ to URJA public response ‘Refused To Improve Service and Be Honest & Transparent’ to consumers.
Programmable Electronic (Computerized) Meters are programmed in a Dishonest Manner. For example a consumer is celebrating ‘Birthday’ besides fans and air-conditioners guests has switched on geysers in summer – electric oven or toaster is also used besides additional flood lighting. So if consumer peak demand for an hour is 20 kilowatt the meter shall record it for ever. Honest programming desired to record ‘Monthly Peak Demand’ that is useful to PDC and consumers as well.
Meters as given in the Patent Specifications USP 6459258 can even be programmed to capture other meters data, or can record say 100 units more at the time of meter reading or at midnight add 10 units to the reading etc.
Every ‘Meter Reader’ carry sophisticated electronic gadget that downloads data stored in Computers of 98% of meters that checks the functioning of meters and its accuracy.
Summary of SR-22 Rejoinder of BSES Dishonest Practices Annexure IV P-15-26
S.No.1 – It is a fact BSES switch of and off power supply several times every day to ensure highest possible supply voltage even if it Damages Consumer gadgets including computers, ACs, LCD TVs besides lights and fans. S.No.2. BSES admitted it didn’t want ‘Connected Load Restriction to Avoid Wasteful Use’ but subject all to regular and ‘Motivated Power Cuts’. S.No.3 BSES doesn’t want to offer ‘Standard Packages’ to avoid delays in serving consumers. S.No.4 BSES doesn’t want to improve service above DVB level in spite of computerization. S.No.5 Any registered NGO/Energy auditor may test check BSES Meters. S.No.6 BSES doesn’t want to give up illegal practice of charging security deposit, 6 months advance deposit when billing cycle is 1-2 months and collect meter cost in tariff. S.No.7 Consumers are entitled to Special Readings any time as right. S.No.8 BSES is dishonest in denying earth fault relays of DB Transformers are disabled. S.No.9 BSES don’t need permission of DERC to provide any additional consumer friendly features in meters. S.No.10. Meter Readers carry sophisticated gadgets can even check the meters and download entire records. S.No.11. Energy auditors are independent and Better Qualified and Skilled. S.No.12. For Test Check purpose by NGOs any factory sealed meter is perfect that is equal or better in accuracy. S.No.13. BSES has installed Computerized ‘Programmable Meters’ that it should test check regularly than falsely implicating consumers in tempering cases. S.No.14. BSES manipulated CPRI, carried out 60 minutes tests after 15 days when Metering Software can be modified in seconds. S.No.15. It is a fact All Electronic Gadgets consume negligible power and burn due to internal faults or voltage fluctuations like 440V supply against 220V, BSES as owners ought to pay for cost of burnt meter. S.No.16. BSES admits it uses wireless devices to access 98% of meters but also maliciously claims its meter readers can’t check seals. S.No.17. Spot billing is essential for transparent billing – it is scandalous to bill April consumption in July. Every consumer is entitled to get annual accounts of his consumption than keeping all bills. S.No.18. BSES admitted filing 85,000 DAE cases in press releases, more not recorded, most were fabricated in case of registered domestic consumers. S.No.20/21. It is grossly
7 immoral and fraud to first fiddle with factory sealed meters in its own workshops, re- program them with no consumer friendly features, record max demand that is not valid for energy calculation and Fabricate the DAE cases. In next para BSES admits only Police is authorized to carry out Search operation. URJA opposes any search of domestic consumers because unlike industry they use exactly similar products. S.No.23. ‘Any officer’ U/S 135(2) means public servant not any service provider or Agent of BSES. S.No.25. USPatent 6459258 explain the technology used by BSES to Cheat Consumers. Cheating 420 cases 120-B (criminal conspiracy), sections 65 (tampering with computer source documents), 66 (hacking with computer system), 85 (contravention of any of the provisions) of the Information Technology Act. S.No.26. Promoter of the Licensee holding 85% share doesn’t have clean image. URJA is reasonable had demanded penalty twice commercial gains not 405 times fabricated demands that were encashed. S.No.27. Police should BSES meters lab whenever it suspects Meters were rigged to cheat consumers. S.No.28. Load factor has existed since three phase electricity was discovered but BSES didn’t apply it in DAE cases. S.No.29. BSES doesn’t provide any information about its vigilance cases nor its breakdown cases on its website. S.No.30. BSES with profit motive has sanctioned consumer loads far in excess of power availability and promotes wasteful use of electricity when there are regular power cuts all over. BSES refuses to transfer connections in the name of tenants for month. S.No.31, 32, 33. It is illegal and unintelligent to bill electricity used by tenant in the name of owner. BSES is yet to engage a sensible person. Owners have no right under IEA2003 to bill and recover electricity dues of tenant. S.No.34. This finally confirms BSES Intentions of Fabricating of DAE cases even after realizing full bill amount maintain the notion that Meter Readers with Sophisticated gadgets neither see any evil nor speak any evil nor hear any when they initiate fabricated DAE cases. CONCLUSIONS CUM REMEDY
U/S 126 vs U/135, Consumer Forums v/s Special Courts
Con.1) All the registered electricity consumers’ domestic consumers in particular were observation of Enforcement Staff cum Recovery Agents for load profiling from July2002 itself. In addition all Three Phase Electronic Meters already had features to detect ‘Theft of Electricity’ even before private distribution companies took charge who initiated large scale replacement of old single phase meters with electronic meters that have ‘Tempering Detection’ features.
It is erroneously assumed that Enforcement Team all a sudden found ‘Tempered Meters’ when all consumers were under constant observation of Enforcement Teams and all cases of registered domestic consumers ought to have been processed under ‘Consumer Protection Act’ U/S 126 of IEA 2003 but Maliciously Private Distribution Companies Fabricated Theft Cases for Illegal Gains U/S 135 of IEA2003.
Each Domestic Consumer was profiled by 1. Enforcement Team, 2. Meter Readers, 3. Meters itself and 4. Software To Detect Dip in Consumption than usual.
126 (1) If on an inspection of any place or premises or after inspection of the equipments, gadgets, machines, devices found connected or used, or after inspection of records maintained by any person, the assessing officer comes to the conclusion that such person is indulging in unauthorized use of electricity, he shall provisionally assess to the best of his judgement the electricity charges payable by such person or by any other person benefited by such use.
135. (1) Whoever, dishonestly, -- (a) taps, makes or causes to be made any connection with overhead, underground or under water lines or cables, or service wires, or service facilities of a licensee; or (b) tampers a meter, installs or uses a tampered meter, current reversing transformer, loop connection or any other device or method which interferes with accurate or proper registration, calibration or metering of electric current or otherwise results in a manner whereby electricity is stolen or wasted; or
8 (c)damages or destroys an electric meter, apparatus, equipment, or wire or causes or allows any of them to be so damaged or destroyed as to interfere with the proper or accurate metering of electricity,
Con.2.) Private Distribution Companies didn’t applied load factor which is 0.133 this means for every 1000 units assessed average expected consumption would be just 133 units. In 99% cases of Registered Domestic Consumers no theft case is made out. Assessment of Load in DERC Code 2007 in Annexure XIII P-127
Recently DERC did correct its ‘Blunder’ since 2002 in Code but had ordered Review in case of few complaints when all cases need re-assessment of cases by applying load factor, cases registered U/S 126 of IEA2003 if warranted. (Annex 1)
Con.3.) General Electric Patent USP 6459258 is being abused by Private Distribution Companies to Run Fast and realize illegal profits. Group Company of BRPL and BYPL has been booked by CBI in call re-routing case, CBI is yet to book BRPL/BYPL/NDPL for running Electronic Meters fast by installing programs that let it run fast or accurate on remote Wireless Command.
REMEDY 1: - Honorable NHRC may please register this complaint, order investigation in to ‘Gross Human Rights Abuse’ Sustained Cheating and Frauds and direct DERC/Special Courts/Consumer Courts to order Review of All Cases of Registered Consumers by applying Load Factor in 2007 Code and order refund with 50% penalty and @32% penal annual interest on amount realized by companies from date of DAE case i.e. twice the Rate of Return approved as profits to PDC as ‘COMPENSATION’ for Severe Harrassment and Mental Torture for years.
REMEDY 2: - Independent Metering & DAE Investigation Agency be constituted under PSUs like NTPC or Power Grid Corporation that have all India presence by to be monitored Electricity Regulators for each state.
REMDEY 3: - CBI may also investigate Few Test Cases for fabricated DAE cases and Manipulating Meters to run fast.
Thank you,
Faithfully,
Ravinder Singh Member URJA
Attachments in Print Annexure 1. – P-10-11. DERC hauls up discoms over power theft and CBI charges RIL’s Modi in call re-routing case Annexure 2. P- 12-14. Description Clippings of US Patent USP 6459258. Annexure 3. P-15. BSES Chart for self assessing electricity Bills. Annexure 4. P-16. Load factor of Domestic Consumers – 11.13%. P-19 TERI Document. Annexure 5. P-17-28. BSES Rejoinder to URJA objections to DERC Supply Code. Attachments on CD DERC Codes 2002 w/o Load Factor, DERC Code 2007 with Load Factor Calculations P-127, IEA2003, Press Releases, SR -R22 Petitioners’ Objections and Soft Copies of above.
9 Annexure 1. DERC hauls up discoms over power theft Ravi Bajpai New Delhi, TOI June 21, 2010
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has launched an inquiry to find out if power companies are harassing consumers by penalising them for electricity theft without conclusive proof.
The Capital's three power companies will now have to furnish details of every consumer they have booked till now on charges of using an electronic device that either slows down or stops the electricity meter.
Probe records show that BSES Yamuna Power Limited - the only company yet to have submitted case details for the inquiry - has so far failed to provide information that could clear its enforcement action.
The other two companies, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited and North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL), missed the deadline for submitting the details and have sought more time.
The companies say that the use of an electrostatic discharge gun - that emits high voltage and disrupts a power meter's functioning - has increased over the last two years and they are, therefore, losing revenue.
But the Public Grievances Cell, the state government's arm to redress complaints about its departments, wrote to the DERC on April 30, saying that the meters the companies claim have been ' tampered' could actually be defective.
"We are unable to appreciate how, without conclusive proof of the guilt of consumers, the discoms can penalise them merely on suspicion," Public Grievance Cell chairman Justice R. C. Chopra wrote.
Pointing out that more and more consumers were petitioning the redressal cell against such enforcement action, Justice Chopra asked the power regulator to start an inquiry so that "innocent consumers are not unnecessarily harassed". In a letter dated May 21 to the three power companies, the DERC sought specific details on the consumers booked for power theft.
Section 135 of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003, lends magisterial powers to power company officials selected by the state government, who can order search raids at consumer premises. Other enforcement agencies such as the police have to take such an approval from court.
But before issuing search warrants, authorised company officials have to record in detail what authorities call a "reason to believe" and explain why they suspect power theft at a particular premise.
"This is one of the many requirements companies have to fulfil before executing raids," a power regulator officer said.
"The Public Grievances Cell's suspicion that consumers are being targeted merely on suspicion can be cleared only if companies show they had recorded a justified reason before a raid," the official added.
In the May letter, DERC assistant secretary Rajasekhar Devaguptapu also asked the companies to furnish the date when the "reason to believe" was recorded before a raid, and the name of the officer who recorded it.
10 Inquiry records reveal that BSES Yamuna Power had submitted on June 7 details of 5,792 cases it had booked for power theft between March 2009 and March 2010.
But it could not furnish the date of recording the "reason to believe" for even a single case, and gave just the name of the officer who recorded it.
Devaguptapu wrote to the company CEO, Ramesh Narayan, on June 8, asking for this detail along with other key information, such as detailed test reports of all electricity meters seized after the raids.
Narayan said: "We record the data of all power meters every month. Discrepancies caused by the use of an electrostatic discharge device can be spotted through that. We have all the details as we follow the law before initiating action."
(BSES, Reliance Infocom Majority Owned By Anil Ambani)
CBI charges RIL’s Modi in call re-routing case
Press Trust Of India New Delhi, July 05, 2010
The CBI has filed a chargesheet against Manoj Modi, a top lieutenant of Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani, and five others in a case related to passing off of international calls as local calls and causing revenue loss to the government.
The chargesheet was filed in a local court in Chennai, four years after CBI took up investigation and five years after Reliance Infocomm paid Rs 150 crore towards penalty imposed by telecom tribunal TDSAT.
Besides Modi, CBI named Akhil Gupta, Shankar Adawal, Pankaj Panwar, KR Raju and Bhagwan Das Khurana of Reliance Infocomm Ltd in the chargesheet. None of these persons are now associated with the company which is controlled by Mukesh’s younger brother Anil Ambani, who got it when the brothers split the Reliance empire. It has since been renamed Reliance Communications. An RIL spokesperson said the company was not aware of the development. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/567892.aspx
11 Annexure 2. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6459258.pdf Description USP 6459258
BACKGROUND OF THE ‘GENERAL ELECTRIC’ INVENTION
IMPORTANT CLIPPINGS
This invention relates generally to electricity metering, and more particularly, to a microcomputer based electricity meter.
Electronic electricity meters for metering multi-phase services typically include a digital signal processor (DSP) and a microcomputer. Certain functions and operations are separately performed in the DSP and microcomputer. By dividing the functionality between the DSP and microcomputer, communications of data and commands must be provided between the DSP and microcomputer. Such an architecture is complex.
In addition, such meters typically are programmed to perform certain functions. Although the meters are upgradeable, the types of upgrades that can be performed are limited to the tables and functions prestored in the meter. In addition, and in the past, increased functionality typically was a trade-off to cost. That is, adding functionality to the meter typically resulted in adding significant costs to the meter.
There is therefore provided in one embodiment of the present invention, a method for controlling data flow in an electronic electricity meter. The method includes steps of measuring current and voltage of a power source; determining a set of internal quantities using the measured current and voltage; using the set of internal quantities in conjunction with a set of functions to determine measurement profile quantities; and storing the determined measurement profile quantities in registers within the meter.
The above-described method for controlling data flow in an electricity meter is simpler than those methods requiring a division of functionality between a DSP and a microcomputer. Furthermore, the method can be expanded to accommodate user-defined functions tailored to a particular utility's needs. ------
Meter 100 can be programmed by an operator, e.g., a utility, so that meter 100 determines desired quantities, regardless of whether that quantity is a common, IEEE-defined value such as apparent volt-ampere-hours, or a quantity used only by a particular utility. Generally, a momentary interval is defined as 60 cycles (for 60 Hz installations) or 50 cycles (for 50 Hz installations) of the fundamental voltage frequency. Known meters calculate a pre-defined set of quantities from the basic quantities every momentary interval. These quantities include total watt-hours (fundamental plus harmonics), apparent volt-ampere-hours, and arithmetic apparent volt-ampere hours. These quantities are summed by the minute. One-minute accumulations of data are stored in a structure called the minute first-in, first-out (FIFO) register. An example of the structure of a minute FIFO is illustrated below. ------
Meter 100 can also accumulate data provided by external devices such as other electricity meters, gas meters, and water meters. Typically this is done through hardware that provides pulses to the electricity meter, which counts the pulses (each pulse represents some pre-defined value, e.g. 1 watt-hour). Meter 100 allows mathematical operations to be defined that operate on accumulations of these pulses. For example, a utility might have an installation where three electricity meters are required. By having two of the
12 meters provide pulse data to the third meter representing watt-hour usage, and defining in the third meter a calculation to add the pulse data from the other two meters to its own watt-hour data, the utility can read the total watt- hour usage of the installation from one meter ------Because a user can specify mathematical operations to be performed on data at a number of steps in the processing of metering data, meter 100 provides that a wide variety of quantities can be determined. Meter 100 also prevents the meter manufacturer from having to anticipate at the product development stage what quantities a utility might require. Since there are constraints that a user must be aware of when programming a meter to compute a given quantity, it is likely that the meter manufacturer would implement for the utility the program that defines the calculations. The utility would then install the program into its programming software package, which would ultimately download the program into meter 100. ------
The firmware can be upgraded in multiple ways. For example, a function or task stored in off-chip flash can be directly over written, replacing the old code with new code, or a new function or task can be written to off-chip flash and the corresponding vector updated to point to the new function or task.
A built-in "bootloader" allows new code to be downloaded into the off-chip flash. Meter 100 ceases metering when the bootloader is initiated. The bootloader accepts blocks of new code and writes them to the off-chip flash 118. When the download is complete, meter 100 "reboots" and begins executing with the new code.
Commercially available off-chip flash memories permit programming without any special voltages. In addition, such off-chip flash memories combine two "banks" of memory that act like separate chips. One bank of the chip can be used for code storage. The other bank can be used for data storage. Each bank operates independent of the other. One can be programmed while the other is being read. One such chip can be used to store off-chip code and data. ------
In one embodiment, microcomputer 114 can be programmed to collect more or less than 70 samples per waveform from a set of six waveforms (three current waveforms and three voltage waveforms). For example, the amount of data collected can be programmed based on the type of triggering event.
Revenue Guard Plus
Microcomputer 114 is programmable to determine energy consumption and other metering quantities for many different form types. In addition, and if one phase voltage is lost during metering operations and the other two phase voltages are still available, microcomputer 114 automatically converts from a three voltage source metering operation to a two voltage source metering operation. For example, and if metering is being performed with three input voltage sources V.sub.a, V.sub.b, and V.sub.c, and if one of the phase voltages, e.g., V.sub.a, is lost, microcomputer 114 automatically changes to metering to the appropriate form type, i.e., generating metering quantities using V.sub.b and V.sub.c. ------
Rollback In the event that meter 100 is to be updated or reprogrammed during operation, the following procedure is performed to ensure that the update, or new program, is executed as quickly as possible upon initiation of the change. Specifically, EEPROM 120 includes storage locations for active and inactive metering programs, i.e., an active program segment and an inactive program segment. The program currently being utilized by meter 100 is stored in the active program segment of EEPROM 120. The active program controls include, for
13 example, display scroll parameters, time-of-use data, a calendar, season change, and holidays. Billing data is generated in accordance with the active program. In the event that an update to the active program is required, or in the event that an entirely new program is to be utilized, then a host writes the updated/new program to the inactive segment in EEPROM 120. Upon initiation of writing the updated/new program to EEPROM 120, meter microcomputer 114 also interrupts the then active program and the metering data is stored in the meter memory. Upon successful completion of the program update, or loading the new program, microcomputer 114 designates the inactive segment containing the new program as the active segment, and causes metering operations to then proceed. The metering data stored in the meter memory during the update is processed by the new program.
------Remote Upgrade
Converting meter operation refers to enabling a user to selectively operate the meter in different metering modes, such as selectively operating a meter either a time of use (TOU) or demand metering mode. Specifically, and as described below in more detail, a user can convert meter operation from a demand only mode to a time of use mode, for example. In one form, the meter has three different modes. These modes are the demand only mode, the demand with load profile mode (sometimes referred to in the art as the demand with timekeeping mode), and the TOU mode.
In general, and in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a soft switch is associated with optional features, and the soft switch enables remote upgrade and downgrade of the meter. The routines associated with the optional features are stored in meter memory, and when the soft switch for a particular feature is enabled, the routine for the enabled feature is executed, and tables become visible. Similarly, when the soft switch for a particular feature is not enabled, the routine for the not- enabled feature is not executed and tables are no longer visible.
Examples of optional features enabled and disabled by soft switches are listed below. TOU Expanded Measures Basic Recording/Self-read Event Log Alternate Communications DSP Sample Output Pulse Initiator Output Channel Recording/Self-reads Totalization transformer Loss Compensation Transformer Accuracy Adjustment Revenue Guard Plus Voltage Event Monitor Bi-Directional Measurements Waveform Capture
To downgrade meter function, e.g., remotely using a remote computer communicating with the meter via a communications option board, the meter memory is read to determine which soft switches are installed. An operator then selects a soft switch to be removed, and the appropriate file associated with the switch is disabled. If a significant change will result in removal of a switch, e.g., removing a TOU switch in a TOU meter, a warning message is displayed to the operator requesting confirmation that the selected switch should be removed.
To upgrade a meter, an operator selects a soft switch to be installed. The soft switch is then enabled in the meter and the particular tables and routines associated with the function for that switch are utilized during meter operations.
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