THE FAIR TRADING COMMISSION (FTC) is moving to ensure more Barbados Light & Power Company Limited customers are compensated when the utility fails to meet service standards.
Not only is the FTC proposing to shorten the period the BL&P has to resolve service breaches and credit the bills of affected customers, but it also wants to introduce a new standard “to monitor the payment of compensation to eligible customers”.
The state agency has published a 47-page consultation paper and is inviting Barbadians to say how they feel about the proposed changes. The public has between April 3 and May 2 to do so.
Under the Standards of Service 2014-2017 governing how BL&P operates, the utility has to pay compensation ranging from $45 for domestic customers to $215 for secondary voltage power/large power customers if eight standards of service are not met.
The standards cover service connection, transfer of service, fault repairs, voltage complaints, reconnections, and billing complaints.
The FTC is concerned that the majority of eligible customers were not receiving compensation due to them. Customers do not get cash; compensation appears as a credit on their bill.
“The Commission notes that for the period July 2014 to March 2015, 17.02 per cent of eligible customers received automatic compensation, while 13 of the 76 eligible manual claims received were not paid,” the FTC said.
“The Commission further notes that the unpaid status on these claims has continued throughout the reporting period. During the period April to December 2016, 18 of the 34 claims which were paid, related to the reporting period (2015-2016); these claim payments were made more than three months outside of the reporting period.”
Emphasising the need to pay claims in a timely manner, the FTC is now proposing that “all claims received by the BL&P which are eligible for compensation should be settled within one month of receipt for automatic form of compensation and within two months for manual verified claims”.
The regulator is also proposing to change the time that BL&P has to restore service to a customer following a fault on their line from 12 to seven hours; and reduce the time for connecting or transferring service from two working days to 12 working hours on receipt of request.
The FTC said it had conducted an assessment of BL&P’s performance over the three-year period based on information the utility submitted quarterly.
“Overall, the BL&P’s level of performance was acceptable in the majority of the categories,” it said.
