More automatic rebates may come to BL&P customers

Too many consumers are failing to make claims for compensation they are entitled to from the Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) when the company does not meet guaranteed minimum standards of service to which it is committed.

The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) is not happy with this situation and is seeking to expand the range of standards for which the Canadian-owned BL&P will have to automatically compensate without the customer needing to make a claim.

In the latest Consultation Paper reviewing the BL&P’s Standards of Service, and for which the FTC is seeking the public’s views, the Government utility regulator said it was concerned about the falling number of manual claims since the standards were introduced in 2018.

The FTC disclosed: “In fact, 82.61 per cent of customers eligible to submit manual claims within the review period, did not do so, and as such this compensation remained unpaid.”

The FTC report added: “The Commission has observed that the bulk of eligible claims attracted automatic compensation. Further, there was a downward trend observed in terms of the number of claims requiring automatic compensation over the review period, with declines of 30.40 per cent and 44.32 per cent for the periods April 2019 to March 2020, and April 2020 to December 2020, respectively, when compared to the first year of the review period, April 2018 to March 2019.

“Conversely, the number of manual claims increased by 50 per cent and 110 per cent, respectively, when compared to the first year of the review period.”

Some of the standards for which the BL&P is required to automatically compensate customers include simple service connections which should be completed within 12 working days or the customer should receive a full refund of the installation fee.

Domestic customers are required to be automatically compensated $45 if BL&P fails to connect or transfer service from one location to another within 12 working hours of the customer’s request.

If a customer’s service is disconnected for non-payment, BL&P is required to automatically refund the reconnection fee if the reconnection is not done within six hours of receipt of payment.

Another automatic compensation which BL&P is required to give domestic customers is $45 for failing to respond to a voltage complaint within 24 working hours.

For all these areas, a higher compensation rate is applied for commercial customers.

In a move that is expected to further benefit consumers, the FTC wants to expand the list of standards attracting automatic compensation.

“Overall, the BL&P resolved 99.25 per cent of all eligible claims submitted over the review period,” the regulator stated. “The Commission is of the view that greater operational efficiencies and an overall improved quality of service for customers may be realised by removing the requirement for manual claims by customers, therefore providing automatic compensation to customers for breaches of all Guaranteed Electricity Standards, except for issues of billing complaints.”

The FTC explained that the standards of service were intended to set a minimum benchmark for the delivery of electricity service, create conditions for customer satisfaction, monitor service quality and protect the interests of consumers of electricity.

Commenting on the timely payment of compensation, the FTC pointed out: “As it relates to the application of credit to customers’ accounts on acceptance of claims within two months as prescribed by the standard, an average compliance of 98.13 per cent was achieved for the period under review.

“The compliance level improved by 3.76 percentage points from the initial period, to peak at 100 per cent for the April 2019 to March 2020 period, while for the final period there was a marginal decline in compliance by less than one percentage point.” (IMC1)