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Photo: Electricity Company
A damaged electric pole
Photo: Electricity Company

Who will foot Electric Corporation bill after storm?

Director of power company says price of fixing torn cables, utility poles stands at NIS 1 billion, but even with natural gas revenue, costs could filter down to consumer

The director of the Electricity Corporation, Yiftach Ron-Tal, has announced that last week's storm that hit Israel and which decimated its infrastructure, would cost the company about one billion shekels, sparking speculation that the price of the clean-up would be passed on to the consumer.

 

A worker fixes an electric cable after the storm (Photo: Yossi Weis)
A worker fixes an electric cable after the storm (Photo: Yossi Weis)

 

During the storm, the company sent out 15 times more workers than usual, and at least 600 electricity poles were damaged.

 

The debts run up by Electric Corporation stand today at 70 billion shekels, and there's little faith that it will be able to increase that sum.

 

All that could change, however, in the future. In April, the Electricity Corporation is expected to decide on tariff changes, and there is a real opportunity for a reduction, as the natural gas fields in the Tamar reservoir off the Haifa coast come into operation.

 

But the company is expected to request a delay in this price drop, in order to offset costs incurred by the storms and to stabilize itself. Electric Corporation CEO Eli Glickman told members of Knesset on Sunday that the price of electricity could well fall in 2015, as the company will be able to cover its loan guarantees from the Egyptian gas crisis and be able to pay back its loans.

 

A damaged utility pole (Photo: Electricity Company)
A damaged utility pole (Photo: Electricity Company)

 

The prices would fall by tens of percent, Glickman said, but qualified that there was no need for a 30-percent decrease in tariffs. 

 

While touring Electric Corp. facilities, the chairman of the Knesset's Finance Committee, Labor MK Avishay Braverman, praised the company's workers for their efforts during the fierce storm.

 

"We know the workers acted with determination to reconnect the power in areas where it had gone down. They worked days and nights," he said. "And in places where there were problems, such as in the customer call center, the Finance Committee has committed itself to fixing these failures. And we will make sure this happens.

 

"The failure was in the actions of the State. There is no one body with responsibility to handle such events and coordinate between the relevant bodies. The Electric Corporation acted responsibly on the storm."

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.23.13, 11:52
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