PANAJI
On an average, more than 800 power consumer complaints were registered every day during the last financial year, with the State Electricity Department receiving over 2.98 lakh grievances ranging from fuse-off calls and power line breakdowns to faulty meters and billing disputes. The figures were disclosed by the department in its quarterly Standards of Performance (SoP) reports submitted to the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC).
The fuse-off calls accounted for nearly three-fourths of all grievances of the 2.98 lakh consumer complaints that the department handled during the 2025-26 financial year. The report also shows that nearly 2.97 lakh complaints were redressed, leaving only 315 cases pending at the end of March, 31, 2026.
The quarterly reports submitted to the regulator show that the department received and disposed of complaints relating to power supply interruptions, line breakdowns, faulty meters, billing disputes, reconnections and consumer services across the State during the year.
The largest category of complaints was normal fuse-off calls, which stood at 2,17,963 during FY 2025-26. These were followed by 36,896 complaints relating to overhead line and underground cable breakdowns, reflecting the continued burden of faults in the electricity distribution network.
Apart from network-related complaints, consumers lodged 15,266 requests for transfer of electricity connections and services, 9,422 applications for reconnection of supply, 9,237 meter-related complaints, and 3,635 billing complaints during the financial year. The department also recorded 928 complaints relating to scheduled outages, 424 voltage fluctuation complaints, 317 complaints concerning grid substations and power transformer failures, and 227 complaints involving distribution transformer failures.
The data shows that the highest number of consumer complaints was recorded during the second quarter (July-September) -- the monsoon season, when the department received 84,125 grievances across the ten major service categories. During the first quarter (April-June), the peak summer time in the State, there were 83,024 complaints.
The complaints dropped sharply to 67,347 during October-December and 60,359 in the January-March, 2026 quarter.
The data also revealed that the department failed to address around 315 complaints by the end of the financial year. Most of the pending cases related to transfer of consumer connections/services (155), followed by billing complaints (22), while all complaints relating to fuse-off calls, line and cable breakdowns, transformer failures, scheduled outages, voltage fluctuations and meter complaints were reported to have been disposed of within the prescribed timelines under the SOP regulations.
The submissions also reveal that no compensation was paid to consumers during any of the four quarters for failure to meet the Guaranteed Standards of Performance.
The SOP reports form part of the electricity department's statutory compliance before the JERC and provide a quarterly assessment of the utility's performance in addressing consumer grievances within the timelines prescribed under the Commission's regulations.
