ERA Urges Electricity Consumers On Their Rights And Obligations

The Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) has urged electricity consumers to be alert and always report any complaints that they may have against their electricity providers but also ensure that they fulfill their responsibilities as consumers.

According to ERA, Consumers have rights; including the right to access electricity of good quality, accurate meters installed at their premises for the billing of all electricity consumed,  and to receive information concerning power outages or other power supply interruptions that might affect them.

Consumers, however, also have obligations that include promptly paying for the electricity that they consume, use of ERA-Certified Technicians for installing electricity at their homes or business premises, and reporting cases of Power Theft to the respective Distribution Utilities that serve them.

”The Electricity Supply Industry operates a Three-Step process to manage the complaints raised by consumers. When a consumer has a complaint, it should be reported to their respective Electricity Distribution Company as the first step. If the complaint is not adequately handled by the Electricity Distribution Company, the consumer can then submit it to ERA for redress. If ERA does not handle the matter to the complainant’s satisfaction, it can be forwarded to the Electricity Disputes Tribunal,” ERA states.

According to the Authority, some of the major complaints that they normally receive include delayed new connections; Billing complaints in case of no bill being delivered to the customer, inflated bills and fraud bills; Metering complaints resulting from faulty meters and delayed meter replacement; Way leaves complaints that relate to unauthorized use of personal land for installation of electrical equipment; and interruption of power supply in case of planned and unplanned outages.

ERA operates a dedicated Consumer Affairs Unit that is responsible for the management of residual complaints from consumers. The Unit can be reached on 0200 – 506 000. It is important to note that the complaints addressed to the Authority should be those that have been reported although NOT fully resolved by the Distribution Utilities.