CEZ dismisses ERE’s accusations of poor performance

TIRANA, March 21 – The electricity distribution operator, run by Czech Republic’s CEZ has dismissed accusation of poor management and arbitrariness with bills by the Energy Regulatory Entity (ERE) in its annual 2010 report, saying that CEZ Shperndarje has done its best despite having no legal protection to prevent the massive energy thefts.
The ERE report accused the distribution company of overcharging 20,000 consumers, which CEZ says it admitted responsibility by annulling the electricity bills earlier this year. CEZ justified the low levels of cut by 3.6 percent in energy losses and the 77.5 percent bill collection rate with the massive power thefts which it says is unable to prevent because of no legal measures by state authorities.
“Despite the amendment to the law paving the way to the establishment of punitive mechanisms, ERE has not been able to approve procedures on the concept of the economic damage, one of the most efficient tools in the fight against power theft,” said the company in a statement.
CEZ said the ongoing poor quality in the electricity supply was a result of the outdated power network which will take years to upgrade.
The Czech Republic company says it has applied for a 100 million euro loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the EBRD to increase investment but has received no confirmation from ERE yet.
CEZ says some 29 transformers and 36 km of lines were robbed from October 2010 to February 2011 affecting the power supply in many regions.
ERE identified problems in the billing procedures especially during the closing months of 2010 when CEZ Shperndarje issued around 20,000 bills in violation of the law and Code punishing household consumers with 4,000 kw/h and business consumers with 20,000 kw/h as ‘economic damage” and unmeasured electricity.”
ERE also raised the concern of delays by CEZ in treating consumer complaints despite the establishment of the Customer Care Centre.
The Energy Regulatory Entity said it received 350 complaints on CEZ’s performance in 2010, four times more than in 2009 because of the company’s incorrectness with customers.
Last week, government announced it intends to pardon 380 million dollars in unpaid electricity bills from 1992 to 2006 just before CEZ acquired former state-run distribution operator OSSH.
ERE is already working on a new draft contract which will oblige electricity distribution operator run by CEZ to take responsibility for power failures. The contract which is in its final phase of discussion with interest groups came after continuous complaints mostly by business but also household consumers over the poor quality of electricity offered by the electricity distribution operator, privatized by Czech Republic’s CEZ since March 2009. Last December, Albania’s Energy Regulatory Agency (ERE) decided to keep electricity prices for 2011 unchanged, turning down requests by the three local operators which would increase power prices by an average of 12 percent for 2011.
ERE’s board of commissioners decided to continue applying the two-tier price level, under which Albanian households will pay 7.7 lek/kWh for a consumption of up to 300 kWh a month and 13.5 lek for each kWh they consume above the 300 kWh threshold.