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Family of Five Members vs. “Energy-Pro Georgia”

December 8, 2008
Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

Five-member family of Mzhavadzes, living in Batumi, intends bringing a law suit against “Energy-Pro Georgia”- an electricity power distribution company.  The family has accumulated arrears that amount to over 600 GEL.  The family claims how the family doubted that their electricity meter was working properly and it registered much more electivity than was actually consumed. The family unsuccessfully applied to the “Energy-Pro Georgia” several times and requested that their meter be examined their meter as they tried to sort out the actual bill

Dodo Lazishvili, 80-year-old member of the family, visited the company twice or three times a month and filed many complaints. “They cut off electricity every month, claiming we have to pay the debt. Initially we agreed on paying the debt gradually and we had to pay current and part of the arrears. However, soon they changed their early decision and they were again in the same situation as before. One month Energy Pro even claimed that our family had used 1 601 kilowatts of energy. How could a family, who uses only one light bulb and a TV Set, burn so many kilowatts of electricity?”

“January 8 2008-1 601 kilowatts; February 8 2008 1 501 kilowatts; March 6 2008-988 kilowatts,” these are the extracts from Suliko Mzhavanadze’s electricity bills. The bills were provided by the Adjara Bureau of the Energy-Pro Georgia.
 
The family declares that at the same period of 2007 they used electricity a total of 70 GEL, a substantially lesser amount. “We demanded the company to examine our meters for months because the bills did not show the amount of electricity that was actually used. Somebody might have tapped into our electricity. The representatives from the company came to our house, checked the meter but did not say anything. We should know what the results of the examination were.”

“Temur Charkviani, single mandate candidate from Batumi visited our neighborhood together with the Georgian president and Levan Varshalomidze, chairperson of the Supreme Council of Adjara Autonomous Republic. They had arrived for the hooking up ceremony when our neighborhood was connected with the gas-supply system. I showed them the electricity bill that used 1 601 kilowatts. Varshalomidze inquired whether we had a factory at home because otherwise a family could not use such a large amount of electricity a month. He promised to find out the situation but nothing has ever resulted. Everybody knows that I do not have a mill or factory at home. Even if I did, it would still be hard to run up a 1` 601 kilowatts bill. They should find out whether somebody else was actually using my electricity,” said Dodo Lazishvili.

The Human Rights Center applied to the Adjara bureau of Energy-Pro Georgia in October of 2008 and requested information as whether they had examined the meter of subscriber Mzhavanadze or not.  The center received the reply a month later which stated: “We would like to inform you that electricity meter of Mzhavanadze several times. The case is transparent and first-class impulsive meter has been installed. We concluded that the meter properly measures actually consumed electricity. The line is clean and accumulated sums do not need to be corrected.”

It must be noted that “despite several examination” their reply to our request was attached with the copy of October 29 protocol.

Lali Ishkhneli, lawyer for the Human Rights Center, stated that the board of the “Energy-Pro Georgia” breaches the resolution of Georgian National Commission for Energy Regulation. “According to the Resolution # 20 of the National Commission of Energy Regulation “Energy-Pro Georgia” had to examine the meter immediately after the request is submitted to the office. The process should not be prolonged for several months. The resolution empowers the subscriber to request an examination of the electricity meter that request must be immediately satisfied. Energy-Pro Georgia shall check how the meter works or whether anybody else has or is consuming the electricity illegally. A subscriber should not be checking it.

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