15 May 2023
Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva sent a recommendation to the acting ministers of energy Rosen Hristov and of regional development and public works Ivan Shishkov, in which she insists on organising an information campaign for domestic customers of district heating companies in condominium buildings in connection with their commitments to replace the devices on radiators and hot water meters with the so-called “smart devices” with remote reading. The replacement of equipment will address the problems of providing access to the homes for consumption meter reading. Replacement of equipment is also a precondition for the abolition of the annual balancing accounts, which now create enormous inconvenience and ambiguity.
The reason for the new recommendation is the alerts from household customers who show insufficient awareness of their rights and obligations related to the implementation of the legal requirements for home retrofitting and the digitisation of devices in general.
We remind that the Ombudsman has already asked the government to support with EU funds about 572,000 households, which, by 1 January 2027, are obliged to replace the heating and hot water metering devices in their homes with devices for distribution of heat energy with remote meter reading.
“Notwithstanding the time limit, the retrofitting of heat-supplied homes with heat distribution devices and hot water meters with remote reading is already being carried out at an accelerated pace, in view of the requirement of Article 140, paragraph 7 of the Energy Act, i.e. when new heat distribution devices are installed, they must be with remote reading. This year and next, the warranty and service life of thousands of heat distribution devices will expire”, writes Prof. Kovacheva.
She stresses that the retrofitting of the “smart devices” in question involves considerable financial costs and extraordinary organisational efforts on their part, and warns that there are grounds for infringing citizens’ fundamental rights to information, individual choice and quality of service.
The Ombudsman summarises the main complaints of citizens – consumers receive prescriptions from heat accountants for accelerated installation of new remote reading devices before the expiry of the warranty or service life of the old devices. People are also dissatisfied with the setting of short deadlines for the fulfillment of the prescriptions of heat accountants, which does not allow them to search and find the best offers for them for the devices and related services.
In addition, citizens have difficulty accessing information about prices, warranty periods, service options and other important consumer information about heat distribution and hot water meters with remote reading. Information on changes in the prices of the service “heat distribution” following the retrofitting of homes with district heating devices is also insufficient. Another problem is the conflict of interest between the water supply operators and the heat accountants who will deliver and install the hot water meters with remote reading.
“Due to a lack of awareness of the provision of Article 140, paragraph 8 of the Energy Act, customers accept the installation of hot water meters with remote reading by a water supply operator and subsequently learn that this is in breach of the legal provision and the heat accountant will not accept as valid the readings of these water meters”, the Ombudsman writes.
In addition, she states that in some cases when hot water meters are replaced by the heat accountant, the provision of information about the new devices to the relevant water supply operator is delayed.
She points out that there is also a conflicting practice regarding the provision of data by heat accountants to water supply operators for remotely read hot water data.
“Data exchange agreements concluded between companies without additional payments from customers are good examples. In other cases, however, a condition is set for additional payments for this service,” notes Prof. Diana Kovacheva.
She is therefore firmly of the opinion that it is necessary to amend in a timely manner Ordinance No. E-RD-04-1/12.03.2020 on heat supply (Heat Supply Ordinance) and Ordinance No. 4 of 14 September 2004 on the conditions and procedures for the connection of consumers and the use of water supply and sewerage systems (Ordinance No. 4).
The Ombudsman wants the setting of a deadline within which the heat accountants must provide water supply operators with the data of the replaced hot water meters and proposes that this deadline be 5 working days.
She insists on regulating the conclusion of agreements on the exchange of information between heat accountants and water supply operators on the readings of hot water meters with remote reading, not allowing any financial burdens on household customers.
She pays attention to the need of aligning the deadline for checking individual water meters, stating that according to Article 34a, paragraph 5 of Ordinance No. 4, this period is currently 3 months, and according to Article 52, paragraph 7 of Ordinance No. E-RD-04-1/12.03.2020 on heat supply the deadline is 1 month.
She also insists that the prescriptions for the replacement of heat distribution devices on radiators and the individual water meters for hot and cold water must contain information about the date of expiration of the service life of the operating devices.