High AC usage sparks safety concerns: Tripura electricity dept urges consumers to declare power consumption

Representation Pic

The Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited has urged consumers to proactively disclose their actual power consumption while adding more than one air conditioner to ensure grid stability. As temperatures soar, the state witnessed a surge in AC usage, with consumers often adding extra AC units without informing the electricity department of their increased power needs.

This oversight poses significant safety risks, including short circuits and transformer failures due to overloaded infrastructure, said Debasish Sarkar, Managing Director at TSECL. He stressed the importance of transparency, emphasising that undisclosed power consumption not only jeopardises system reliability but also community safety.

"It has been seen since last year that, due to the temperature surge, consumers are increasing their use of AC. Those who were using one are now using two, and simultaneously, according to their capacity. But the main problem is that consumers never share the details. Because whenever we provide a connection, we allot a particular power to them. But whenever they start utilising more power, this creates problems.

This is not safe. This causes a short circuit, or failure in the transformer. So, it's the responsibility of every consumer to declare their requirements. The Kolkata electricity department faces huge problems due to the same. So it's an urge from my side to everyone, every citizen of my state and country, that whenever you are increasing the power consumption, you must disclose this to the concerned department," Sarkar said.

He also stressed that by mid-2026, the entire state will be connected to smart metres. "Currently, there are all post-paid metres in Tripura. We have just moved from post-paid to prepaid. As per Ministry of Power guidelines, every metre has to be a smart metre. Therefore, we had taken two schemes: one Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded project and one RDHS funded project. In the ADBfunded project, we are procuring 1.5 lakh smart metres, and in the RDHS we are procuring 4.5 lakh smart metres," he said.

"By mid-2026, the entire state will be connected to smart metres," Debashish Sarkar added. The Tripura State Electricity Department MD mentioned that smart metres will have a lot of benefits for consumers. "It's benefit will be that the consumer can recharge his own metre through the mobile app. He can know his own consumption pattern. Through this, energy consumption can also be reduced. A smart metre is a very good step for energy consumption. Consumers and the nation will benefit from optimum energy utilisation. If any consumer does not make a payment, then we can also switch off the metre from here. Right now, we have to go physically and disconnect the connection," Sarkar said.

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