Utilities’ performance on Guaranteed Standards
The CAU fielded twenty-six (26) contacts in relation to alleged breaches of the Guaranteed Standards by the JPS and the NWC. The NWC has submitted one part of the Guaranteed Standards report, which is the section that shows the number of breaches. The missing section details the sum that the Commission
would have paid out in automatic compensation during the review period. No report has been received from JPS to date.
- Our Appeals Process
The activities of utility companies are guided by “terms and conditions” within their license and/or Act. There are occasions, however, when consumers feel that particular action(s) of a utility company might have been in breach of the utility’s “terms and conditions” or might have been unfair to them. In such
circumstances, the OUR is an avenue for recourse in having any such wrong investigated and addressed through our appeals process.
Before submitting an appeal to the OUR, consumers are expected and encouraged to first take the complaint, or issues giving rise to the complaint, up to the level of a senior officer at the respective utility company. The hearing of grievances is a consumer’s right and utilities are obliged to review such
matters with the aim of having the issue addressed or clarified.
- Closure of Appeals
Twenty-five (25) appeals were closed by the CAU during the review period. Of those closed, sixty percent (60%) were in favour of the service providers while twenty-four percent (24%) were in favour of the customer. The remaining 16% represents appeals for which a compromise was reached or those that were withdrawn by the customer.
Twenty-two (22) of the closed appeals were carried forward from previous periods while the remaining three closed appeals were received and resolved within the OUR-established standard of sixty (65) working days
