PUCSL, CEB and LECO launch countrywide mobile service to solve electricity user complaints

• First program begins from Southern Province
• Commission received 856 complaints on electricity from Jan-Sept, but lower than last year’s 1,244
• Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa will be covered under mobile service program next month

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the electricity sector regulator together with Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electricity Company Ltd. (LECO), recently launched the first-ever island wide provincial mobile service to solve the complaints of the electricity users with the participation of more than 500 electricity consumers in the Southern Province.

The mobile service will be held in all the nine provinces addressing the electricity complaints of the consumers and offering them a solution or a procedure then and there, share the regulatory tools with the consumers who seek information, introduce the new services by utility providers, provide solutions for the issues with regard to the way leaves which under the powers of divisional secretaries, provide new electricity connections, etc.

“It is a concept of the President and the Prime Minister that public servants should go to the public and serve them. So, I invite the public to come and receive this service and get solutions for the issues you have,” said Galle District Secretary Somarathna Vidanapathirana at the launching ceremony of the mobile service in the Southern Province, held in Hall De Galle on 17 September.

According to the statistics of the Southern Province Mobile Service, about 500 complaints were received and solutions were provided to all the issues at the premises. Most of the complaints were about wayleaves, electricity supply to block-out (auctioned) lands, meter shifting, new connection and name changing of the electricity connections.

PUCSL received 865 electricity complaints from January to September 2020 compared to 1,382 electricity complaints received for the same period 2019. PUCSL was able to facilitate 1,244 electricity complaints from January to September 2020. The majority of the complaints were about the issues with regard to wayleave, billing, new connections, meter related and electricity quality related. The next stop of the mobile service will be Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa in the month of November addressing the issues of electricity consumers of the North Central Province in Sri Lanka.