OpenLegislation

Explanatory note

Original text. Later amendments are not shown.

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations re-enact the Electricity (Standards of Performance) Regulations 1991 with amendments. They prescribe the sum which a public electricity supplier (“supplier”) must pay to a customer by way of compensation for failure to meet specified standards of performance in respect of the electricity supply services to be provided by such suppliers.The sum payable differs between domestic and non-domestic customers, and between standards.The standards do not apply to customers supplied under special agreements.In addition to minor and drafting amendments, they make the following amendments of substance:

  • a claim for compensation for failure to restore the electricity supply to a customer’s premises (regulation 4) or for failure by an electricity supplier to give notice of an interruption of supply (regulation 7) need no longer be in writing;

  • where it is necessary for a supplier to visit a customer’s premises to install a meter and energise the supply (regulation 5), to investigate a voltage complaint (regulation 8), to investigate a complaint about a meter (regulation 9) or in any other circumstances in connection with his activities as public electricity supplier (regulation 11), the supplier must offer to visit during a morning, an afternoon, a period not exceeding two hours, or such reasonable period as the customer requests; where a supplier proposes to interrupt supply, the notice he is required to give to customers is extended in the case of some suppliers from two days to a longer period (regulation 7);

  • where a customer makes a voltage complaint under regulation 8, a meter complaint under regulation 9, or a request to change his methods of payment or a query about charges or payments under regulation 10, the customer is not obliged to submit the matter in writing, although queries and requests under regulation 10 to the suppliers mentioned in regulation 10(3)(c) must be in writing until 1 October 1993; and the supplier may indicate the hours when a telephone number is available to receive such matters (regulation 15(4));

  • the supplier is required to offer to visit a customer’s premises whenever a visit is requested in connection with the supplier’s activities as a public electricity supplier (regulation 11);

  • where a supplier is required to dispatch to a tariff customer a statement of rights under these Regulations, the obligation shall be satisfied in relation to any premises where more than one person is a tariff customer by dispatching the statement to any one of them (regulation 12(1)(b)); and

  • in the Schedules, the prescribed period has in some cases been changed and the amount payable to the customer has in each case been doubled.

The Electricity (Standards of Performance) Regulations 1991 are revoked (regulation 18) subject to the transitional provisions in regulation 17.