Soon, power cut in Bangalore will come after SMS

Soon, you will be able to plan your day around the power schedule, for an SMS will land in your inbox informing you when to expect load-shedding.

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has notified all their meter readers to collect the mobile numbers of one person from each household with an electricity meter. This would help inform all customers of an impending power cut, well in advance.

The company has started various initiatives to build up better consumer interface. Measure have been taken to improve services. Scheduled power cuts, which the electricity supply company can plan for, are already announced in newspapers a couple of days in advance.

Beginning March, the meter readers will start collecting phone numbers so that consumers know exactly when to expect a power outage. Consumers are also advised to write or paste their mobile phone numbers on their meter boards, or inform the meter reader when he comes to read the month’s electricity consumption.

“We will start with one sub-station as a pilot project, and observe how things progress over two or three  months. If the programme is a hit, we will include all sub-stations across Bescom’s jurisdiction. But currently, we want to start collecting contact numbers to create a database,” said P Manivannan, managing director, Bescom.

The board had promised to extend this facility before Ugadi during the public meetings with the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) in November 2010. The sub-station for the pilot project has not been finalised yet.