STELCO to audit houses with high electricity bills

The State Electric Company (STELCO) has decided to conduct an energy audit of households whose electricity bills are extremely high this month.

STELCO Managing Director Hussain Fahumy told a press conference on Saturday that the company's electricity bills have seen a reduction by 94% this month in the capital city Male.

However, Fahumy said there are households in Male and Hulhumale whose electricity bills are extremely high and the company and its customers need details.

They include:

"There are 6% of households in Male that we need an explanation [of what happened] and the customers also need an explanation. About 15% [of houses] in Hulhumale have bills that are very high. We need to know why," Fahumy said.

He said the company has decided to send a team to conduct an audit of the apartments with high bills.

"We intended to visit 6% of the households in Male and 15% of the households in Hulhumale where the bills are high. We decided to go to the apartments and conduct an energy audit," Fahumy said.

We wish to identify the condition of the properties, what kind of appliances they use, type of air conditioners and how the overall apartment is insulated, and we want to share the information with those customers,” he said.

STELCO's Chief Technical Officer Ahmed Iqbal said electricity bill spikes are common every year but this year the complaints have been coming for a long time, persistent.

According to statistics, the bills have decreased significantly this month but there are places where the bills have not decreased or have increased significantly, Iqbal said.

“Now we work more closely with customers and our goal is to keep them informed,” he said.

Iqbal said he would meet customers whose electricity bills have increased and listen to their concerns.

The company's General Manager, Service Center Ahmed Saif said STELCO can assure its customers that it will not cheat and if there is a problem with the bill, it will be investigated.

STELCO said:

"Frequency and voltage will always be monitored by the automated system. Under no circumstances will staff or duty cluster staff play with it [voltage/frequency]. I am very confident and can assure the public that our staff will not play with the power system. The metre depicts the amount of energy that has been used by the people”.

"Nowadays, the amount of fuel burned, and the unit produced is increasing month by month. What is known is the amount of electricity people use. There will be no fraud in the power plant”, he said.