Supply Activity and Its Core Principles
The supply of electricity or natural gas to final customers is carried out under the procedure established by the Law of Georgia on Energy and the subordinate normative acts issued under it. Save for the cases directly specified by the law, supply is performed at an unregulated market price, on the basis of a supply contract concluded between the final customer and the electricity or natural gas supplier. Household customers and small enterprises are entitled, under the procedure established by the law, to use electricity and natural gas supply services.
A supplier purchases electricity or natural gas on the basis of a bilateral contract or on an organized energy market. A supplier bearing a public service obligation may buy and sell energy in compliance with the law, the relevant market model concept and the legal acts of the regulator, provided it keeps separate accounting for public service supply and its other supply or trading activities. The regulator ensures, in line with Georgia's international obligations, that the regulation of supply activity is not discriminatory towards an energy enterprise of any party of the Energy Community.
Supply Rules and Standard Contract Terms
The rights and obligations of the supplier and the final customer are defined by the supply contract. Matters of concluding the contract and its content are governed by the supply rules approved by the regulator, which are binding on every supplier in both the electricity and natural gas sectors. The supply rules define the procedure for changing contract terms, the customer's right to terminate the contract, the way information is provided before a price increase, the provision of information on applicable prices, standard terms and conditions of access to the service, the customer's obligation to make available information related to the contract, settlements or invoices, and the procedure for charging and paying the fee for services rendered.
Contract terms must be drafted clearly and comprehensibly and must not contain administrative or non-contractual barriers to the exercise of customer rights, including demands for unnecessary documents. The supplier must protect the customer from unfair and misleading sales methods. The regulator approves standard terms of the supply contract that govern the continuous and reliable supply of electricity or natural gas to household customers and small enterprises; a contract is deemed concluded under the standard terms upon connection to them in the manner established by the regulator. If the contract is concluded through an intermediary, the customer must receive the required information before signing.
A supplier may refuse to serve a customer, or request the system operator to stop supply, only in force majeure or security-related cases defined by Georgian legislation, or where the customer, despite a warning, fails to perform obligations under the supply contract, including payment for services received.
Supplier Obligations Towards Customers
Every supplier must establish an individual service point enabling the customer to obtain transparent information on prices, regulated tariffs and standard terms, to choose among several non-discriminatory payment methods, to receive information about the possibility of switching supplier free of charge, and to use a transparent, simple and free complaint procedure. This procedure must allow fair and timely resolution of disputes: under the law, disputes must be resolved within 10 working days, with compensation or redress where applicable.
For consumption control purposes, the supplier provides the customer with systematic and accurate notifications of actual electricity or natural gas consumption and the corresponding cost, free of charge and with the periodicity set by a legal act of the regulator. After completion of the supplier switching procedure, the customer receives a final account, an invoice, no later than 6 weeks. A supplier serving household customers and small enterprises also operates service centers providing information by phone, email and in person; the center works at least once a week up to 20 hours, and booking an appointment there by phone or email must be possible. For customer protection, a commission for reviewing complaints is also created.
The supplier must notify the customer of any change in the supply price and other conditions no less than 1 month before the change takes effect, together with information on the right to terminate the contract before expiry. If the customer does not accept the new terms, the customer is entitled to withdraw from the contract. In addition, the supplier publishes an information card for energy consumers, regularly provides information on energy efficiency improvement measures, and reflects the supplied energy and related service fees clearly in an intelligibly compiled invoice whose drafting rules are determined by the regulator.