Panama Fines Naturgy $14 million for Service Failures
The National Authority for Public Services (Asep) reported on Monday that it had imposed the “highest and most historic fine” of 14 million dollars for deficient quality in the provision of electricity distribution services to the companies Edemet and Edechi, “both part of the Naturgy group.”
The Metro-Oeste Electric Distribution Company, SA (Edemet) and the Chiriquí Electric Distribution Company, SA (Edechi), failed to comply with current service quality standards in the area of electricity, said Zelmar Rodríguez Crespo, administrator of Asep. The regulator ordered the two companies to apply a credit in favor of their clients affected by failure to provide quality service, in the order of 3.6 million and 10.7 million dollars, respectively. “We are working towards a comprehensive transformation of public services in the country,” said Rodríguez Crespo, who also urged all concessionaire companies to improve the quality of public services for the benefit of Panamanians, according to official information.
In Panama, a country of 4.2 million inhabitants, there are three electricity distribution companies: Edemet (Naturgy), which has 568,000 customers; Ensa (535,000) and Edechi (Naturgy), with 182,000 customers, according to local press data. While electricity rates have risen by between 2% and 15% in the first half of 2024, driven by the drought and the high price of gas and fuel, in Panama there are constant blackouts that can sometimes last for hours, which generates recurring complaints from users, who even close streets to demand service.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who took office on July 1, 2024, said in June that “the entire country is overwhelmed” by the constant blackouts, and promised measures to “restore order” and ensure that state concessionaires that distribute electricity offer good service. In light of this situation, Mulino instructed the personnel appointed to Asep “that one of the first actions is to begin to put order in all these companies that have a public service, to remember that they are concessionaires of the State, and the State is the Panamanians.”
