From Saturday electricity providers have to restore supply within 12 hours of a the service being cut off due to lack of payment, assuming the account has been settled.
The new Quality of Service in the Electricity Sector rules, approved earlier this month by the regulator ERSE and published today in the Official Gazette, come into force on December 1st and introduce a raft of rights for both customers and operators.
In case of a supply being cut off for non-payment, and then paid for, if the customer pays an additional amount for an urgent reconnection the supply must be reconnected within four hours; and within 12 hours if no urgency fee is asked for and paid.
In the case of electricity failure needing the services of an engineer, his arrival at the customer's house must be within four hours of the call having been logged. If this is after midnight the clock starts ticking from 8.00am the next morning.
Visits by engineers will be scheduled for a 2.5 hour time slot, after which compensation can be paid if nobody shows up on time. Conversely the customer will be billed if nobody is at home to let the engineer in.
Customers are entitled to be financially compensated for late arrivals, no shows, interruptions of service, and poor response to complaints.
The electricity supplier is to communicate information to the client and credit his account 'without the client needing to ask.'
The caveat is that there is no right to compensation when exceptional events occur, when there is no access to the customer's property, when the client is unhelpful when a complaint is being compensated, among others.
