ERE’s board of Commissioners is expected to approve the new contract which will enter into force next January
Tirana Times
TIRANA, Sept. 6 – CEZ Shperndarje has rejected some points on the new contract the Energy Regulatory Entity (ERE) has proposed for consumers. In a hearing held on Monday, representatives of the electricity supplier opposed the newly proposed penalty rates, the automatic compensation and suspension of bills found to be overcharging consumers.
CEZ Shperndarje’s legal affairs director Aurora Alimadhi requested that the current penalty rate for unpaid bills should remain at 0.5 percent of the bills value per day and not 0.1 percent as ERE has proposed, arguing that this would affect citizens’ responsibility to pay the bills in time.CEZ officials also opposed ERE’s proposal’s to suspend bills in which consumers have been overcharged, suggesting that the bill must be paid before verification takes place.
ERE representatives also asked CEZ to provide consumers access to reading power meters.ERE’s board of Commissioners is expected to approve the new contract which will be in force staring in January.
The new draft contract obliges CEZ to provide 24/7 power supply and compensate household and business consumers in case of power failures.
Most importantly, CEZ is also obliged to respect power quality parameters which vary from +/-5% for Tirana, +/-10% for other urban areas and +10/-15% for rural areas.
“The electricity supplier is responsible for the damage the customers may suffer because of voltage fluctuations,” says article 8.2.2 of the draft contract. If not settled by mutual consent, the damaged is determined by a court decision. The contract allows consumers to file complaints when overcharged and benefit from compensation in the coming two months if a mistake has been made when reading power meters or processing data.
The new regulation considers each cut lasting for more than 3 minutes as a long one. It also foresees that unplanned power cuts in 2011 for consumers supplied with lower voltage cannot be longer than 2 hours for the capital, 4 hours for urban areas and 24 hours for rural area consumers.Describing the review of the current contract as necessary following the privatization of the distribution operator by CEZ, ERE says the improvement is aimed at guaranteeing quality standards and offering consumers full protection in their relations with the provider of this basic service.
