Jordan News

Emad Abdel Karim

During the months of December and January of each year, the percentage of citizens’ complaints and grumblings about the high consumption value in electricity bills increases, amid accusations of electricity distribution companies of increasing the value of bills or charging citizens the value of electrical losses or renting throughout the year.

And in the year 2020, which witnessed large protests, and the rise in the value of electricity bills was so fictitious that it made the official and supervisory authorities direct their attention to looking into the complaints, and the House of Representatives at the time demanded the formation of an independent committee to look into the matter.

After weeks of meetings hosted by the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Authority, in cooperation with the State Audit Bureau as independent bodies, it was able to audit thousands of electricity bills with electricity distribution companies, and the results showed that there was no defect in the bills, while the citizen continued to confirm that his consumption throughout the months of the year is not equal to Part of the value of the December and January bills, so where does the imbalance lie in light of the recurrence of the same issue this year?

Electricity meters calculate the subscriber’s consumption only

For his part, the General Manager of Irbid Electricity Company, Eng. Bashar Al-Tamimi, confirmed that the electricity meters calculate the subscriber’s consumption only and cannot calculate any quantities in the electric current, whether it is lost or otherwise that the subscriber does not consume, as the meters calculate the quantities entered afterwards and do not count. Anything is her heart.

Al-Tamimi indicated in his statements to “Jordan News” that the complaints we hear today about an increase in the value of electricity bills, especially during the last period, are due to an increase in the consumption of electric energy, whether in the domestic, commercial, industrial or other sectors.

And he indicated that the Kingdom recorded a maximum load during the last period, which constitutes the highest load in previous years, reaching 4100 megawatts, and this is a result of large consumption and the subscribers’ dependence on heating caused by electric heaters and other heating methods.

Al-Tamimi explained the mechanism of work of some electrical devices during the winter season, which need double electrical energy in order to do their work; An example of this is the “Kaiser Electric Heater”, which raises the water temperature during this period from temperatures below zero.

He added that the water temperature during other seasons is much higher, and therefore the operation of the heater needs double time and double electric current to heat the water, which means an increase in electrical energy and an increase in consumption.

Strict control of companies in the waste file

For his part, the expert in the field of energy, Hashem Akl, praised the supervisory role of the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Authority, stressing that there is strict control implemented by the authority and campaigns on consumption sites as well as on distribution companies, and monitoring of companies is carried out through a regulatory system known as (codes) concerned that follows up on companies In terms of wastage, the imposition of fines occurs if the loss exceeds a certain limit.

Winter consumption is different from the rest of the seasons

Akl told Jordan News that the imbalance in the value of electricity bills, especially during the months of December and January, is due to reasons related to the increase in energy consumption, as this period is considered one of the coldest months of the year, and thus the citizen seeks to obtain warmth from all that It has a variety of devices, whether electric heaters or “air conditioners”.

He denied charging the losses to the subscribers, so that the losses would be borne by the National Electricity Company, whose mission is to supply the three distribution companies in the north, center and south, as the issue of illegal renting.

Aqel pointed out that the issue of renting is illegal and cannot be charged to subscribers in a certain region or neighborhood, as an item is allocated to it in the companies’ budgets under the item of current expenses, and if it exceeds the assessed value for which it is allocated, it is distributed to sales and loaded onto subscribers’ bills in the form Expenses in general and collectively, so that they are calculated within the tariff price for which the subscriber is charged.

On the issue of the high cost of bills for solar energy subscribers or users, Aqel confirmed that the defect lies in the consumption of the stored value by the polytheist due to the lack of sunlight during the winter season, which forces him to consume electricity and therefore the bill is very high as he has moved to the slides. high consumption.

200 million to be borne annually by the citizen in exchange for electrical losses

The expert in the field of energy, Amer Al-Shobaki, had posted a tweet on his personal page on the Twitter platform, in which he said: “Let the Jordanian citizen know that he bears electrical losses from thefts and network slack, which reached more than 20% in the past two months, which raises consumption to a higher segment and doubles the value of Electricity bill”.

Al-Shobaki pointed out that subscribers are charged annually more than 200 million dinars in replacement of lost, which is distributed on the bill of the obligated citizen.