A fair deal for electricity consumers
Damitha Kumarasinghe Deputy Director General, Public
Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka
Over the past few decades many countries around the world have
transformed their electricity industries in order to achieve economic
efficiency and social objectives. One of the main such changes is the
establishment of regulatory institutions to regulate the industry.
Sri Lanka too has moved in that direction and today observes World
Consumer Rights Day, recognizing the importance of promoting the basic
rights of all consumers, demanding that those rights are respected and
protected, and ensuring the market is free of abuse and social
injustices which undermine these rights.
World Consumer Rights Day was first observed on 15 March 1983, and
has since become an important occasion for mobilising citizen action.
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Consumers
at a busy market |
Keeping in line with international best practices, the Government of
Sri Lanka enacted the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No 20 of 2009. The
purpose of this Act is to provide for the regulation of generation,
transmission, distribution, supply and use of electricity in the
country. This Act empowered the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka
(PUCSL) with regulatory responsibilities in the electricity sector.
This new electricity regulatory regime is intended to provide
benefits to all stakeholders of the sector which include but not limited
to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Lanka Electricity Company (LECO),
other private generators, village electricity schemes, the government,
and most importantly all consumers and prospective consumers.
This article, commemorating World Consumer Rights Day, examines the
benefits of the new electricity regulatory regime for two of the most
important stakeholder groups; the existing consumers of electricity and
the prospective consumers of electricity.
The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL)
The PUCSL is a government institution established by an Act of
Parliament, consisting of five commissioners with at least one member
each having qualifications and experience in the professions of
engineering, law, and business management.
It employs a small staff comprising of mainly well-trained
professionals in the disciplines of engineering, economics, finance,
law, and business management.
Some of main objectives of the PUCSL (as per the PUCSL Act) related
to the electricity industry include:
1. Protecting the interests of consumers
2. Promoting efficiency in both the operations and capital
investments
3. Promoting efficient allocation of resources
4. Promoting safety and service quality
5. Benchmarking against internationals standards
6. Ensuring that price controlled entities acting efficiently do not
find it unduly difficult in financing their activities
Therefore, it is mandatory for PUCSL to safeguard the interests of
all stakeholders, not only the price controlled utilities such as CEB
and LECO, but also the marginalised electricity consumers.
Electricity Consumer Expectations
Electricity consumers have many expectations which mainly focus on
fair pricing of electricity.
Amongst other issues are supply quality and reliability, access to
electricity, issues pertaining to socio-economic groups, rights of the
consumers and dispute resolution.
Above all, they expect some authority to listen to their concerns and
understand the issues at hand. Let's examine how the PUCSL Acts to
protect the interests of electricity consumers.
a) Fair Pricing
Prices should be fair for the both the consumers as well as the
service providers. This means that price regulation is intended to
restrict economically unjustifiable profits to the investors but still
provide them with a reasonable return on their investments.
The PUCSL is legally directed by the Sri Lanka Electricity Act to
follow the cost reflective pricing policy guidelines approved by the
Cabinet of Ministers. Cost reflective implies that only the cost of
efficient operations will be taken into account in determining the
tariff.
Furthermore, examining the objectives of the Commission under the
PUCSL Act, the Commission shall:
1. Protect the interest of all consumers
2. Ensure that price controlled entities acting efficiently do not
find it unduly difficult in financing their public utility industries
b) Quality and
Reliability
Quality and reliability of electricity supplied should comply with
supply and performance standards regulations.
Some examples of performance standards are, time taken in restoring
supplies after a fault, connecting a new premises to the grid, time
taken to respond to customer complaints, etc. whereas supply standards
consist of voltage, frequency etc. The PUCSL should make these standards
publicly available and all consumers must be educated in this regard.
It is expected that over a period of time these supply and
performance standards will be improved resulting in high quality and
reliable electricity supply to all. Therefore, these new legal
requirements will be highly beneficial for electricity consumers in
terms of the quality and reliability of their electricity supply in the
long-term.
c) Requirements of Different Socio-Economic Groups
This is a very important aspect in our society. Until the Sri Lanka
Electricity Act came into effect, there was no legal requirement to
consider concerns of different socio-economic groups. This includes
low-income support for the use of electricity. The Act clearly indicates
that the Cabinet of Ministers should formulate policy guidelines
considering the requirements of different socio-economic groups, thus
ensuring equal attention to all socio-economic groups in Sri Lanka.
These policy guidelines will be implemented through the PUCSL. These
guidelines will be published and, as an advisor to the Government on
policy, the PUCSL needs to provide the information gathered through
public consultations and the Consumer Consultative Committee (discussed
later) to the Cabinet of Ministers in order to draw up policy
guidelines.
To be continued
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