Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — The Saudi Electrical energy Regulatory Authority has accepted new amendments to the rules for detecting, proving, and adjudicating violations within the provisions of the Electrical energy Regulation. These amendments embrace elevated penalties and up to date wonderful evaluation mechanisms after inspecting the character and circumstances of every violation.
The authority emphasised within the amendments the significance of contemplating the severity of the violation and aggravating circumstances when figuring out penalties. The penalties embrace fines that vary between SR5000 and SR100000 for these discovered responsible of tampering with electrical energy meter. The wonderful was set at SR5,000 if the breaker capability is 100 amps or much less, and it’ll elevate to SR15,000 for breaker capability between 100 and 150 amps. The wonderful for tampering with the electrical energy meter with a breaker capability between 150 and 400 amps is SR50,000, and the wonderful would attain SR100,000 if the capability is greater than 400 amps.
The amendments stipulate that the wonderful for tampering with an electrical energy meter or any of its equipment shall be SR 50,000 if the violator doesn’t personal the account for the meter in query or isn’t an precise beneficiary of it. This quantity could also be exceeded if the implications of the violation are confirmed to be critical or have been repeated greater than twice, in accordance with standards decided by the competent committee.
The authority famous that the amendments cowl ten primary violations, most notably failure to implement the authority’s directives relating to dealing with complaints, which carries a wonderful of SR20,000, and failure of the licensee to cooperate in offering the authority with the required info, which carries a wonderful of as much as SR100,000.
The amendments additionally embrace a wonderful of SR2,000 for failure to adjust to the statutory deadlines stipulated within the rules referring to electrical providers offered to customers, and an additional wonderful of SR50,000 for failure to adjust to the authority’s efficiency requirements, which the licensee should adhere to. The amendments additionally included different violations, reminiscent of failure to adjust to the regulatory framework for small-scale photovoltaic photo voltaic power techniques and failure to adjust to the regulatory framework for electrical automobile charging actions, every of which carries a wonderful of SR3000.
The authority additionally amended the rules for figuring out restore prices and assessing compensation for misplaced advantages to the utility or third events on account of tampering with the electrical energy meter. If the tampering ends in a malfunction, interruption, or discount in electrical energy consumption, the beneficiary shall be required to pay the worth of the unrecorded consumption and the prices of repairing any harm to the meter or any of its equipment.
If the incident doesn’t require meter alternative, the fastened worth of restore prices and misplaced utility for residential consumption ranges between SR250 and SR1,150, relying on the breaker’s amperage capability, which ranges between 100 and 400. If the incident requires meter alternative, the wonderful ranges between SR1,150 and SR4,050, relying on the identical capability. For non-residential consumption, if meter alternative is required, the wonderful ranges from SR300 to SR2,050, whereas it ranges from SR1,150 to SR4,950 if the incident doesn’t require meter alternative.
The amendments added a brand new article stipulating that within the occasion of a direct connection to the electrical energy grid with out a meter, the beneficiary is required to pay the worth of the unregistered consumption, along with the prices of repairing any harm to the grid or any of its equipment, relying on the diameter of the connecting cable. Fines on this case vary from SR1,300 to SR17,000 within the residential sector, whereas they vary from SR1,700 to SR33,000 within the non-residential sector.
The amendments additionally require the service supplier to take away the violation and restore the ensuing harm after finishing documentation procedures. In addition they require the service supplier to refer the violation to the authority to assert the restore prices and misplaced utility advantages, and to finish the required authorized procedures on this regard.