Puerto Rico’s Vitality Bureau says it’s launching an investigation into how a personal firm is dealing with complaints about electrical payments after Hurricane Fiona knocked out energy to the complete island.
The announcement comes as a rising variety of prospects within the US territory complain about being charged for electrical energy after they didn’t have energy and receiving increased than regular energy payments.
The Unbiased Workplace of Client Safety urged the bureau final week to research difficulties in submitting such complaints.
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The bureau known as on Luma Vitality to instantly cease any follow that stops shoppers from objecting to electrical payments by way of phone or on-line and to increase the deadline for purchasers to file their complaints, amongst different issues.
It additionally demanded that Luma Vitality submits proof inside ten days that it was complying with the bureau’s orders.
Luma spokespeople didn’t instantly return a message for remark.
Of Luma’s 1.47 million purchasers, greater than 8,800 stay with out energy virtually a month after Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico‘s southwest area as a Class 1 storm.
Luma officers have famous that restoring energy partially has been sophisticated by the crumbling state of Puerto Rico’s grid, which was razed by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Reconstruction of the electrical grid has solely lately began.
Luma, which took over the transmission and distribution of energy in Puerto Rico greater than a 12 months in the past, has confronted rising criticism about prolonged outages that occurred continuously even earlier than Fiona hit.
AP/