A Review of Outage Reporting by Indian DISCOMs

by Upasa Borah and Renuka Sane.

In 2023, 99.5% of India’s population had access to electricity (World Bank, 2023). This statistic, however, should be measured along with the data on consistency and quality of electricity supply. Frequent power outages and low and fluctuating voltage can adversely affect appliances, reduce productivity, increase the cost of production and reduce standards of living (Jha et al., 2021). It adds a financial burden on both households and firms, who are forced to invest in costly backup options like inverters and diesel generators (Pargal and Banerjee, 2014). As India expands its electricity access, it is useful to measure how it is faring on the quality of its electricity supply. The aggregate data does not appear promising. According to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Index by the World Economic Forum (2019), India ranked 108 out of 141 countries in electricity supply quality.

A response to the question of quality should first begin with assessing its measurement. In this article, we examine the availability of outage data in India. Outages refer to any interruptions in the supply of electricity to end consumers, and are classified into three types, depending on the location of the interruption in either generation, transmission or the distribution segments of the electricity system. We focus on outages happening in the distribution system, as it captures the final impact on consumers and takes into account upstream interruptions. These fall under the purview of distribution companies (DISCOMs), so we study all the DISCOMs in the country, and ask:

1. How many DISCOMs report data on outages?
2. Is the format of available data consistent across DISCOMs on

1. methodology,
2. period of data availability, and
3. the spatial unit of reporting?

Is there consistency in the reporting of outage data across states?

Is there a relationship between DISCOM characteristics like fiscal health and ranking, ownership and location and the availability of outage data?

Measuring outages

The quality and reliability of electricity supply are estimated by relying on a measure of either frequency or duration, or a combination of both, of interruptions faced by consumers. Feeders, which could be underground or overhead wires connecting substations to service areas, are the backbone of the distribution network, and distribution outages are typically measured using data from these feeders.

Two of the most widely used reliability indices are the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), and the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI). The former measures how often an average customer experiences an interruption, while the latter denotes the total minutes (or hours) of interruption an average customer faces. For example, as an illustration, if a distribution network serves 1,000 customers and experiences 200 supply interruptions in a given year, SAIFI would be 200/1000, or 0.2, interruptions per customer. If the total duration of interruptions in the same network were 3,000 minutes, then SAIDI would be 3000/1000, i.e. 3 minutes of interruptions per customer.

Supply interruptions or outages can be planned or unplanned, where planned outages are those that have been scheduled in advance, like maintenance work, which the DISCOM is supposed to disclose to customers in advance. Unforeseen outages due to disruptions, faults in the distribution system, extreme weather events, etc., are unplanned outages. From the perspective of the consumer, however, both planned and unplanned outages disrupt daily consumption and production activities and thereby have costs associated with them. Moreover, many households report not receiving prior information on planned outages (Agrawal et al., 2020), and it is often unclear which specific events are categorised as planned.

Methods

As per the Electricity Act 2003 and the National Electricity Policy 2005, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is tasked with collecting and publishing reliability indices for DISCOMs (Central Electricity Authority, 2022). However, this is not a statutory mandate, and compliance remains voluntary (Sekhar et al., 2016). The State Electricity Regulation Commissions have Standards of Performance regulations that outline metrics for reliable supply and guidelines such as time taken to restore supply, penalties, etc. (Athawale, 2021) Further, the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 (Ministry of Power, 2020) mandate that DISCOMs should supply power 24×7 as the norm, with the State Commissions specifying the acceptable levels of SAIDI and SAIFI values for unavoidable interruptions. It also states that DISCOMs should have a mechanism to monitor and restore outages and disclose feeder-wise outage data and efforts made to minimise outages. The Consumer Service Rating of DISCOMs by the Ministry of Power & Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (2024) factors outages in its rating of DISCOMs; however, this data on actual outages is not publicly available.

We compiled a list of all the DISCOMs in the country using the annual ranking of DISCOMs by the Ministry of Power (2025). While the CEA publishes annual reliability indices (Central Electricity Authority, n.d.), not all DISCOMs are included in their lists. Moreover, such annual data masks the granular, day-to-day variations needed to meaningfully study the reliability of electricity supply.

We reviewed each DISCOMs official website to assess their current reporting practices. We restricted our search to official websites, and on encountering broken or unsafe links, we considered the data to be unavailable.

Findings: Availability of data

As per the Ministry of Power, there are a total of 72 DISCOMs in the country, all of which are included in our dataset. Among them, 36 (50%) have some form of outage data available on their websites, although irregular. The remaining 36 DICSOMs have no mention of outage or interruption data anywhere on their websites. Among the DISCOMs for which data is available, a closer look reveals the inconsistency and sporadic nature of the reported data. Broadly, there are three types of inconsistencies: i) the type of data reported and the methodology used, ii) the time period for which data is available, and iii) the spatial unit of measurement.

Reporting of data

The first inconsistency lies in the way outage data is reported. 17 out of the 36 DISCOMs use the SAIFI and SAIDI indices. The rest report interruptions by date and time, without noting how many customers were affected. Among the ones that report SAIFI and SAIDI, there is an inconsistency in the way the reliability indices are calculated. For instance, the Delhi Standard of Supply Code (Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission, 2017) states that planned outages and outages less than five minutes shall not be included in calculating the reliability indices. On the other hand, the Haryana Standard of Supply Code (Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, 2018) includes planned outages in the calculation of the indices, while excluding outages of less than three minutes. DISCOMs like Karnataka’s Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) reference a “Reliability Index” without specifying which one. Other Karnataka DISCOMs provide feeder or area-wise frequency and duration of interruptions without calculating the SAIFI and SAIDI indices. Yet others, like Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML), report only the number of complaints registered and the duration taken to resolve them. Additionally, six of the 36 DISCOMs only reported scheduled or planned outages, and there was no data on unplanned outages.

Time period for which data is available

The second inconsistency concerns the time for which the data is reported. Only eight out of the 36 DISCOMs had data going back at least five years. For the rest, data availability was patchy and lacked any clear patterns. Some have data only for the past year, while others have data for sporadic years like 2022, or 2019 to 2024 and so on. Five DISCOMs had outage data only for the current date (as of visiting the website), and past archives were not available. In another instance, like that of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL), viewing outage data was allowed only for 60 days prior to the current date. Table 1 summarises the time period covered by the DISCOMs. There are also variations in the frequency of reporting outage data; some publish daily figures, others have data weekly, monthly or quarterly. 15 DISCOMs reported monthly SAIDI and SAIFI data, while two reported them daily.

Table 1: Coverage period of outage data

Time period covered	No. of DISCOMs
Last five years	8
Sporadic years	23
Current day	5

Spatial unit of measurement

The final inconsistency relates to the spatial unit of reporting, summarised in Table 2. 16 DISCOMs report interruptions both by feeders and areas, while four reported only feeder-wise data. Among these, some report outages in 33kV and 11kV feeders separately, while others club them together. The distinction is important because 33kV feeders carry electricity from high-voltage substations to 33/11kV substations where voltage is stepped down, and 11kV feeders then deliver power to local service areas through distribution transformers that further reduce voltage for end-users. 16 DISCOMs report outages in terms of geographic area, like zones, divisions or areas affected. However, it is unclear if these area lists are comprehensive; for instance, Assam Power Distribution Company (APDCL) reported district-wise data, but did not include all districts.

Table 2: Spatial units used in reporting outages

Unit of reporting	No. of DISCOMs
Area and feeder	16
Only feeder	4
Circles, divisions, towns, cities	13
Zones	2
Areas affected	1

Findings: Does DISCOM ranking, ownership, or state matter?

Next, we examined whether a DISCOM’s characteristics, like the state where it is located, its ownership and ranking are correlated with the availability of outage data.

There were no visible patterns of data availability observed across states. In states with multiple DISCOMs like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, most did not report outage data. In contrast, all four DISCOMs of Odisha and all three of Andhra Pradesh had outage data available on their websites. The three inconsistencies discussed earlier were also evident within states. For instance, among the four DISCOMs in Delhi, only three had data available, and among them, there were variations in the spatial units used (area vs feeder) and the time period for which data were reported.

We used the 13th DISCOM ranking by the Ministry of Power to see if better-performing DISCOMs tended to have better data availability. However, there was no clear correlation; both high-ranking and low-ranking DICSOMs seemed equally likely or unlikely to make outage data available. There was also no correlation between ownership and data availability.

Finally, we compared the DISCOMs that publish outage data on their websites to those for whom CEA has compiled annual reliability indices (Central Electricity Authority, n.d.). Of the 49 DISCOMs included in CEA’s 2021-22 list, only 26 had data available on their websites. Alternatively, among the 23 DISCOMs not included in the CEA list, 10 had outage data available on their websites. It is worth noting that for eight of these 10 DISCOMs, the data was available for sporadic years, which may explain their exclusion from the CEA’s lists. Nonetheless, these findings point to the disconnect between the CEA and DISCOMs reporting practices.

Accuracy of reported data

The availability of data does not guarantee its accuracy. Several studies have raised concerns about the unreliability of outage data reporting, particularly in developing countries (Min et al., 2017). Sengupta (2017), for instance, found that in January 2017, the National Load Dispatch Centre reported only a 0.9% shortfall in power supply in Uttar Pradesh, while Prayas Energy Group recorded a daily average of nine hours of power outages in rural areas and two hours in urban areas. Other studies point to similar discrepancies: scheduled power cuts in India often last longer than officially noted (Baskaran et al., 2015), there are logical inaccuracies in reported data (Mandal et al., 2019), and household survey data do not align with government-reported outage statistics (Agrawal et al., 2020).

These findings suggest that simple reporting of outage data is not sufficient. There is an urgent need for independent and transparent monitoring systems that complement official reporting and allow for verification of accuracy. Independent studies have attempted to fill this gap, using surveys (Agrawal et al., 2020; Bigerna et al., 2024; Khanna & Rowe, 2024), satellite night-light data (Min et al., 2017; Dugoua et al., 2022) or initiatives like the Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative (ESMI) by Prayas Energy Group (n.d.), but these efforts are usually restricted to specific regions and limited time periods. The lack of a single agency reporting outage data, combined with the inconsistencies in reporting practices by DISCOMs further complicates the process of data verification.

Conclusion

In July 2024, the National Feeder Monitoring System was inaugurated, which has data on around 2.5 lakh 11kV feeders across the country (Ministry of Power & REC Power, n.d.). Its dashboard provides data on hours of supply in rural and urban areas by state and DISCOM. However, to the best of our knowledge, it does not offer access to historical, granular data on daily hours of supply by feeders, state or DISCOM. The CEA reports annual reliability indices, but it should cover all DISCOMs in its list and augment it by including more granular data. A logical next step, however, is to ensure that the available data is accurate, which requires independent monitoring systems. Prayas Energy Group’s ESMI has minute wise data on supply from November 2014 to December 2018 (Prayas Energy Group, n.d.), recording not just outages but voltage fluctuations. Such efforts should be scaled up and maintained on an ongoing basis.

Having accurate and accessible data on hours of supply and areas of outage is crucial not only for consumers to understand and plan their production and consumption but also for a thorough review of DISCOMs’ performance. While much of the discussion on DISCOMs centres around their financial health, it is also important to assess their ability to supply reliable power to their customers. Standard of performance indicators should include data on feeder-wise outages, distribution transformer failure rates and SAIDI, SAIFI (Pargal & Banerjee, 2014; Mandal et al., 2019). Reliability indices are valuable for providing consistent, comparable measures of service quality over time, but daily reporting of feeder-wise data that includes time, duration, cause of outage and measures taken to resolve the issue, also has its benefits in allowing for spatial, minute-by-minute analysis to pinpoint weak links in the network. Whichever approach is used, however, it should be standardised across DISCOMs and reported collectively, with a common format agreed upon by all stakeholders. If the sector moves towards reliability indices, their calculation methods should be consistent and published more frequently to ensure meaningful assessments, comparisons and verifications.

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The authors are researchers at TrustBridge Rule of Law Foundation. We thank an anonymous referee for useful comments.

Source: https://blog.theleapjournal.org/2025/09/a-review-of-outage-reporting-by-indian.html