Electricity Complaint Number
Dial 1912 anywhere in India — plus your own DISCOM’s numbers and the fastest outage routes
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The electricity complaint number is 1912 anywhere in India — a national short code for power supply complaints, published independently by MSEDCL in Maharashtra, by PVVNL under UPPCL in Uttar Pradesh and by the Government of Puducherry Electricity Department. Most distribution companies also run their own toll-free line, an SMS or missed-call route for outages, and an app. Use the selector on this page for your state, and always take the complaint or docket number before you hang up.
Key takeaways
- 1912 works across India for electricity complaints. It is a short code, not a state number, so it reaches your own distribution company.
- For a power cut, the missed-call and SMS routes are usually faster than talking to anyone — MSEDCL, for example, takes a missed call on 022-5089 7100 and an SMS reading NOPOWER followed by your consumer number.
- Your 12-digit consumer number is on every bill and is what the system identifies you by. Save it in your phone now, not during the outage.
- Always get the complaint or docket number. A call with no reference did not happen as far as any later forum is concerned.
- A phone complaint is right for an outage and wrong for a billing dispute — a disputed bill needs to be in writing from the start.
Find your electricity complaint number
Dial 1912 anywhere in India for an electricity complaint. Pick your state below for that utility’s own published numbers and the escalation route above it.
iGuideline Summary
Electricity distribution is run by state utilities, so there is no single national company — but there is a national short code. 1912 is allotted to electricity call centres and routes to the distribution company supplying your connection, which is why MSEDCL, PVVNL under UPPCL, and the Puducherry Electricity Department all publish it independently. Keep your 12-digit consumer number to hand, and always take the docket number.
When to File This Complaint
- No supply in your house, street or area
- Voltage fluctuation, low voltage or repeated tripping
- Transformer or line fault, sparking, or a fallen conductor
- Meter faulty, stopped, burnt or running fast
- Bill far higher than your normal consumption
- New connection, load change or name change not done
Documents Required
- The 12-digit consumer number from your bill
- A recent bill, and the last twelve for any billing dispute
- A dated photograph of the meter reading
- The exact location — pole or transformer number, street and landmark
- Earlier docket or complaint numbers, with their dates
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Hanging up without a docket number, which leaves no record the call happened
- Reporting a billing dispute by phone, where nothing you said is preserved
- Not having the consumer number ready, so the complaint cannot be logged against the connection
- Raising a fresh complaint each time instead of quoting the existing docket, which resets the clock
- Photographing the meter only after the utility claims to have corrected it
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the electricity complaint number in India?
1912. It is a national short code allotted to electricity call centres, so dialling it from your connection reaches the distribution company that supplies you. It is published independently by MSEDCL in Maharashtra, by PVVNL under the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation, and by the Government of Puducherry Electricity Department, among others. Most utilities also run their own toll-free number alongside it.
What is the fastest way to report a power cut?
Where your utility offers them, the automated routes beat the call queue. MSEDCL, for example, publishes a missed-call number, 022-5089 7100, and an SMS route — NOPOWER followed by your 12-digit consumer number, sent to 9930399303. Both log the outage against your connection immediately. Use 1912 if the automated route is unavailable or the fault persists.
Do I need my consumer number to complain?
For anything connection-specific, yes — it identifies the connection, the feeder and the area, and every channel asks for it first. It is the 12-digit number printed on your bill. Save it in your phone now: during an outage you will not be able to find a paper bill or log in to view one.
Is 1912 the same as the electricity board complaint number?
In practice yes — "electricity board" is the older name for what is now a state distribution company, and 1912 routes to whichever one supplies you. Some utilities also keep legacy numbers and area office lines, which appear on your bill. Where we have been able to read a utility’s own contact page, its numbers are in the selector on this page.
What if my state is not in the selector?
Then we have not yet been able to read that utility’s own page, and we will not publish a number we have not verified — a wrong helpline number is worse than none. Dial 1912, which works nationally, and take the escalation route: the CGRF and Electricity Ombudsman stages are statutory and identical in every state.
Can I complain about a wrong electricity bill on 1912?
You can report it, but you should not rely on it. A billing dispute is an argument about a figure, and a phone call leaves no record of what you said or what was promised. Put it in writing through the utility’s portal, app or email, stating the meter reading you photographed with its date, and ask for meter testing and a revised bill.
What 1912 is, and why it works in every state
Electricity distribution in India is run by state utilities, not by one national company, so there is no single company to call. What exists instead is a national short code: 1912 is allotted to electricity call centres, and dialling it from your own connection routes you to the distribution company that supplies you.
That is why the same three digits appear on the contact pages of utilities that have nothing else in common. MSEDCL publishes 1912 alongside its own 19120 and its 1800 numbers. PVVNL, under the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation, runs an entire complaint portal branded 1912 at 1912.uppcl.org. The Government of Puducherry Electricity Department lists 1912 as its short code beside its own toll-free line. Three unrelated utilities, one number.
The practical consequence is that you do not need to know your DISCOM's name to report a fault. You do need your consumer number, because that is what identifies the connection, the feeder and the area — and it is the thing people never have to hand when the power has just gone.
Take the 12-digit consumer number from your latest bill and save it in your phone under "electricity". Every complaint channel — the call, the SMS, the app, the portal — asks for it first, and during an outage you will not be able to find a bill.
Which channel to use, by what has actually gone wrong
The channels are not interchangeable. A missed call is superb for a power cut and useless for a wrong bill; an email is the only sensible route for a disputed assessment and far too slow for a live fault. Picking wrong is the commonest reason a complaint goes nowhere.
| What has happened | Best channel | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Power cut in your house or street | Missed call or SMS, then 1912 if it persists | Automated outage logging is faster than a queue and creates a ticket |
| Voltage fluctuation, or repeated tripping | 1912, with the consumer number | Needs a field visit, so it has to reach a fault queue |
| Transformer or line damage, sparking, a fallen wire | 1912 immediately, and stay away from it | Safety emergencies are prioritised over service complaints |
| Wrong or inflated bill | Written — the portal, the app, or email | A disputed figure needs a record; a phone call leaves none |
| Meter faulty, stopped, or running fast | Written, asking for meter testing | Testing has to be requested and recorded, not described verbally |
| New connection, name change, load change delayed | Written, quoting the application number | These run on service standards measured from the application date |
| Disconnection notice you say is wrong | Written, immediately | Protection here is statutory and depends on documented dates |
What to say on the call, and what to write down
Electricity call centres route by identifiers, not by narrative. A call that opens with the consumer number and the nature of the fault gets logged in under a minute; a call that opens with how long this has been going on gets an apology.
- 1Give the 12-digit consumer number first, before anything else.
- 2Say what kind of fault it is in one phrase — no supply, low voltage, meter, billing, sparking — because that word decides which queue it enters.
- 3Give the location precisely: the pole or transformer if you can see one, otherwise the street and a landmark. For a street-level fault this is what the crew navigates by.
- 4Say how long it has been going on and whether neighbours are affected. A whole-street outage and a single-house outage are diagnosed differently.
- 5Ask explicitly for the complaint or docket number, and repeat it back to confirm.
- 6Write down the number, the date and the time of the call. This is the record everything later is built on.
- 7If the fault is a safety hazard — a fallen conductor, sparking, a burning smell — say the word "safety" or "danger" early, and keep people away from it.
If the operator will not give you a reference, note the date, time and the name of the person you spoke to, and follow up in writing the same day quoting those details. A CGRF will ask what you did and when, and an undocumented call cannot answer it.
When the number is not enough
A helpline resolves faults. It does not resolve arguments. If your complaint is that a bill is wrong, that a meter is being read incorrectly, that a connection you applied and paid for has not been given, or that a disconnection was improper, no number of calls will settle it — those go to the distribution company in writing and then up a statutory ladder.
That ladder is the same in every state because it is created by the Electricity Act, 2003: the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum of your distribution licensee under section 42(5), and above it the Electricity Ombudsman appointed by your State Electricity Regulatory Commission under section 42(6). The Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 put outer limits on how long grievance redressal may take. That is a different job from ringing 1912, and it is set out step by step on our electricity complaint escalation guide.
- Fault, outage, voltage, safety — the helpline is the right tool, and 1912 is the number.
- Bill, meter, connection delay, disconnection, refund — put it in writing and follow the statutory ladder.
- Either way, keep the docket number: the ladder above measures its clock from your first complaint.
Worked examples
Example 1: A street outage reported the fast way
- Problem
- No supply on the whole lane since 9:40pm
- Utility
- MSEDCL (Maharashtra)
- Held
- 12-digit consumer number saved in phone
- 1.Give a missed call to 022-5089 7100, or SMS NOPOWER followed by the 12-digit consumer number to 9930399303 — both are published by MSEDCL for exactly this.
- 2.The outage is logged automatically against the connection, which places it in the fault queue without waiting in a call queue.
- 3.If nothing has changed in a couple of hours, dial 1912 and quote the ticket already raised rather than opening a second one.
- 4.Note the ticket number, the time it was raised and the time supply was restored.
- 5.If outages on the same feeder repeat, that record of ticket numbers is what turns "the power keeps going" into a documented pattern.
The fault is logged in seconds rather than after a queue, and the numbers collected turn a recurring nuisance into something a CGRF can act on later.
Example 2: A billing dispute that should never have been a phone call
- Problem
- Bill of ₹38,000 on a household averaging about ₹800 a month
- First instinct
- Call the helpline
- Better route
- Written complaint from the start
- 1.Photograph the meter with the current reading and the date visible, before anything else.
- 2.Collect the last twelve bills, which establish the consumption pattern without any argument being needed.
- 3.Complain in writing through the utility’s portal, app or email, stating the reading you photographed, the reading the bill claims, and the difference.
- 4.Ask for two specific things: meter testing, and revision of the bill on the tested reading.
- 5.Keep the acknowledgement. If it is not resolved, that written complaint is the date the CGRF clock runs from.
A dispute about a figure is documented from day one, which is the only form in which it can be escalated.
More questions about this page
Is 1912 free, and does it work from a mobile?▼
What if I do not know which electricity company supplies me?▼
Can I complain about someone else’s connection, or a street light?▼
How long should an electricity complaint take?▼
Official sources checked
The statutes, rules and regulator pages the statements on this page were checked against.
- CGRF and Ombudsman under Section 42(5)-(7), with procedure left to the State Commission; fifteen clear days’ notice and the two-year bar under Section 56.
- Rule 15: grievance redressal within 30 days ordinarily, and 45 days at the outside.
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Escalation Path
- 1Utility helpline — 1912, or the DISCOM’s own toll-free number
- 2Written complaint to the distribution company, quoting the docket number
- 3Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) of the licensee — Electricity Act, 2003, section 42(5)
- 4Electricity Ombudsman appointed by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission — section 42(6)
- 5District Consumer Commission, where the claim is for compensation
Important Disclaimer
GetNyay is not a law firm, not an advocate, and is not affiliated with any government body. We do not provide legal representation or guarantee complaint resolution. All information is for educational and self-help purposes only. Users are responsible for verifying final content before submission. Regulator contact details and timelines are informational — always verify at official government portals before relying on them.