By: CHRIS GRAEME
PORTUGAL’S LARGEST consumer organisation is confident that a deal will be brokered that will prevent electricity consumers footing EDP’s 12 million euro shortfall.
DECO, which sits on the Tariff Council Board, Conselho Tarifário, for energy services watchdog ERSE, Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos, said that ERSE proposals under discussion to offload unsecured debts onto consumer bills were “unacceptable”.
“We are against it and convinced that it won’t be approved and are doing everything so that it won’t get passed,” said Jorge Morgado, a DECO spokesman.
Michael Reeve, Chief Executive Officer of AFPOP, Portugal’s largest foreign residents’ association, told The Resident: “When we heard about the proposals, we thought it was important to pass the information on to members and make them aware.
“The AFPOP management council hasn’t decided as yet to take any form of action such as making a formal complaint or statement, it’s up to individuals to decide to complain or not.”
He added: “In many other European countries, one has the option to move one’s business to another supplier, which unfortunately is not the case in Portugal. We know there’s been a public enquiry and we’ll have to wait until the outcome of that.”
An official spokesman for ERSE said it was aware of concerns, which was why it had been holding public consultations into the issue, which closed on Monday.
“A new package is under discussion involving all parties which will regulate the tariffs that can be charged for the next three years,” said the spokesman.
“What will happen now is that we will take the next couple of weeks, until around July 18, to sift through and analyse all of the reports, documents, complaints, opinions and minutes from all parties – both consumers and companies – from the public consultation and then decide on the issue at the end of July.”
Unreasonable
This proposal arose following regulation revisions within the sector. Up until July 7, and on the initiative of the ERSE, this and other proposals have been subject to public consultation, said DECO’s Jorge Morgado.
“The introduction of this type of charge worked into consumer electricity bills is unreasonable since, in all other companies, so-called unsecured debts are costs associated with business risk which should be supported by the companies themselves,” he said.
However, Jorge Morgado did say that energy prices in Portugal were not realistic, that the public would have to face future higher energy bills, needed to be more sensible in energy consumption habits, that the government needed to increase its investment in alternative energies and finally a deregulated, freed up Iberian Energy Market (MIBEL) needed to be developed quickly.
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