2024-08-20 23:44:35
Below we explain the process of compensation provided by distribution companies to customers without electricity and how it is reflected in electricity rates, since part of the money received by those affected corresponds to the payment made by the users themselves to the companies.
After the extensive power outage that caused the sistema frontal which hit the south central area more than 10 days ago, various questions arise regarding how the mechanism will be to carry out the compensations for affected customers and how this will translate into rates.
Under this context, Law 18,410 establishes that the unauthorized interruption of the electricity supply that affects all or part of one or more distribution concession areas will motivate a compensation to affected users.
To determine how much compensation is paid and how it is necessary to distinguish between two situations arising from power outages.
“The first compensation for users will be that which is granted to all customers who have suffered power outages for a certain number of hours or days, the compensation mechanism for which is automatic, as it is established by law. This compensation, as a general rule, is paid to the user in one or more installments in the successive bills or invoices of the affected customer,” Ricardo Hernández, coordinator of the policy and society program of the Res Publica Institute, explained to EL DÍNAMO.
In this context, such reparation is equivalent to “double the value of energy” discount not supplied during the period in which the service was not available,” said Francisco Irarrázabal, professor of the Master’s in Natural Resources and Environmental Law at U. Finis Terrae.
While the second compensation called “additional”rather seeks to compensate for damages caused to customers by the power outage, such as faulty power supplies, damaged appliances, among others.
“However, this type of compensation is not subject to further regulation, so It must be requested by each user, demonstrating the damage through photographs, videos or other means.either directly to the company, through Sernac – individually or collectively – or by going to court,” Hernández explained.
Tariff compensation: How does the CNE mechanism work to make companies pay?
But the million-dollar compensations that companies must pay, such as Enel o CGE, will be transferred to tariffs. To put things into context, in the last process of setting the Distribution Added Value (2020-2024), the National Energy Commission (CNE) introduced the service quality criteria of the last update of the technical standard, in April 2024.
“For the first time, criteria were considered that aimed to establish by design that Not all customers should have the same quality of supply. This is based on the fact that 100% compliance with the standard’s indicators would have as consequence that the final rate would rise significantly due to the necessary adjustments that the network would require,” he began by saying THE DYNAMOHumberto Verdejo, academic of the Department of Electrical Engineering at USACH.
In this way, the CNE “considers it more efficient that some clients remain below the quality standards and avoid forcing companies to build iAdditional infrastructure that would raise the rate considerably”the expert explained.
In this regard, Verdejo explained that “under normal operating conditions, in the municipalities that had a high network density categorization, only 95% of the clients could have up to nine hours of supply interruption in a moving average of 12 months backwards. For the remaining 5% of clients who had more hours of interruption, they would receive compensation, and this amount was provided as part of the rate. Ultimately, the compensation received by the users of that 5% who may have more interruption time is financed by all the users of the system.”
Considering the above, the USACH academic stated that “the compensation that the CNE estimated and was considered in the rate can be exemplified as a cross-subsidy among users.”
Regarding the prolonged interruption of the electricity supply that occurred in the Metropolitan Region and in the central-southern zone, the expert stated that “the difference that is not covered by the CNE model will be assumed by the distribution companies. Most likely, the forecast made by the CNE in the The 2024 pricing model will fall far short of all the compensation they will have to pay companies now due to supply cuts.”
When asked if this mechanism protects distribution companies, Humberto Verdejo said that the reason “It is not about protecting the company, but rather about preventing the rate from rising too much. If the rate goes up too much, then the user is harmed.because all investments have to be paid in tariffs.”
For this reason, he insisted that “in order to avoid making those investments that will significantly increase the rate, the CNE avoids or prefers, by design, to consider that a percentage of clients who could have supply failures are better compensated than having to, otherwise, raise the rate so much due to the investments required to ensure that the standards are met for 100% of the clients,” he concluded.