Virinder Singh was sworn in by Kusumjit Sidhu as Lok Pal Electricity Punjab
Chandigarh, September20, 2017 :
Virinder Singh was sworn in as the new Lok Pal ( Ombudsman) Electricity by Kusumjit Sidhu Chairperson Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) today. He will hold this office up to Dec 5, 2019.
The court of Lok Pal Electricity is the appellate authority to the existing 20 Dispute Settlement Authority (DSA) headed by Superintending Engineers and five Consumer Grievances Forum being set up by the PSERC to be headed by retired Chief Engineers, Divisional Commissioners and Addl. Session Judges.
An Electrical Engineering graduate of 1970 batch from Thapar University, Virinder Singh has over 45 years of experience in power sector. He remained Chief Electrical Inspector Punjab for two years ,, Chief Engineer and Engineer in Chief PSEB for three years and Member PSERC for about 5 years.
His tenure in PSERC is famously called a watershed in regulatory discipline in India as during his tenure, PSERC , central regulator (CERC) and Govt. of India took historical decisions of saving Rs.1900 crore annually to Punjab by way of Coal Audit of PSPCL thermal plants ( Rs.300crore), Agriculture Power audit( Rs300 crore), Application of PSERC coal audit and enforcing new thermal plant operating norms( Rs.500 crore), third party testing of coal supplied to thermal plants( Rs. 800 crore). He was instrumental in framing the Rs 2 lac crore national plan on reduction of T&D losses by Forum of Regulators, currently under execution. He is a strong votary of bringing down the electricity tariff rates, coal prices, reducing T&D losses to 6% and converting agriculture subsidy to direct subsidy and has written extensively on these issues.