STELCO teams to visit households to identify causes for high electricity bills in July

Local utility provider, State Electric Company Limited (STELCO) has decided to send special teams over to households issued with overpriced electricity bills during the last month to perform energy audits and probe into the cause.

Managing Director of STELCO, Hussain Fahmy said during a media briefing today that residences billed with high amounts for electricity in the past month have been identified. He revealed that six percent of households in Male' and fifteen percent in Hulhumale' had received high electricity bills.

"We will send a team to apartments and statistically examine. After visiting apartments, we will perform an energy audit - to assess the situation. Like which kind of appliances they use. [We will] check how the insulation in apartments are," said Fahmy.

Determining the cause for high electricity bills last month is of importance to STELCO as well, he assured, further expressing hopes of identifying the reason after the energy audit.

According to Fahmy, STELCO compiles bills based on electricity readings with no deception involved in the process.

"When these complaints come in, we also undoubtedly believe it is high. But Hulhumale' has another factor - some apartments measure 1,500 square feet and others, 2,000 square feet," he said.

Fahmy said that concerned households with electricity bill issues can also request to perform audits, assuring that those residences will also be examined.

Some people have been been raising concerns on social media about high electricity bills from last month as well.

While STELCO supplies electricity to 70,000 households in the Male' region, peak hours observe an electricity usage of over 100 megawatts. This year saw usage soaring up to 113 megawatts during its highest peak.

STELCO said that electricity usage has increased to 8-10 percent on average each year, with the company estimating usage to exceed to 120 megawatts during peak hours in the coming years.