Company to compensate customers in Isparta for power outage

ISTANBUL

The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) has ruled that electricity distribution company Akdeniz Elektrik Dağıtım should pay 15.6 million Turkish Liras to its nearly 28,000 subscribers in compensation for the power outages earlier this year in the province of Isparta.

The authority finalized the probe it launched into the company over the power outages, which affected thousands of people earlier this year.
The probe concluded that Akdeniz Elektrik Dağıtım failed to make the required investments which eventually “unacceptably lowered” the quality of distribution services in the region and that the company should also be fined 1.62 million liras for this failure.

The authority also imposed additional 1.64 million liras in fine on the company for failing to present necessary documents during inspections conducted at its headquarters.

The probe revealed that some 19 power outages, which lasted 10 hours or longer, occurred in February and that those outages affected a total of 27,850 subscribers of the company in the province of Isparta.

The authority ruled that Akdeniz Elektrik Dağıtım should pay each residential customer 109 liras and other customers - depending on the contract - up to 1,307 liras in compensation. In total, the company will pay 15.58 million liras to its customers.

“We always warned that the companies that cause harm to their customers will pay the price for it. This is what happened in this particular case. We conducted a rigorous probe and carried out the necessary inspections,” said Mustafa Yılmaz, chair of the EPDK.

Yılmaz noted that this was the largest fine imposed on an electricity distribution firm over the deteriorated quality of service offered to customers.

He also said that the EPDK would follow whether the compensations were paid.