The new Protected User Information System (ALDIS) will become fully operational from 1 September this year. The System is a new solution that will apply to more than 150 thousand Latvian residents and enable them to pay less for electricity every month.
The range of the protected users includes large families, persons with a Group I disability, families with disabled children, and low-income households.
“The Protected User Information System has been developed by using a conceptually new approach to the provision of public services. Now the State will automatically identify the recipients of aid and calculate the amount of aid on the basis of information at its disposal. It will be possible to refuse the aid, but people will no longer have to apply for it. This is the direction to take in the development of all public services,” explains Svetlana Mjakuškina, Director of the State Construction Control Bureau (SCCB) which is a manager of ALDIS.
So far, a reduction in the price of the electricity consumed a month has been applied to the protected users in the amount of 300 KWh for a large family and in the amount of 100 KWh for other categories of the protected users, additionally providing for different reductions in the connection fee etc. The sole electricity operator that could provide such service has been A/S Latvenergo.
After implementation of ALDIS, the amount of the aid for a poor or low-income household (person), a family (person) that takes care of a disabled child, and a person with a Group I disability or his or her trustee has been set as EUR 5, but for a large family – EUR 10 a month. The protected users that qualify for several categories will receive an aggregated amount of the aid.
The payment reduction will be applied by the electricity operator, and it will be funded from the State budget. If a protected user is a party to a contract for supply of electricity, he or she will not have to carry out any additional activities – the process of granting aid will be automatic, but if a protected user is a sub-user of electricity (for example, a contract is concluded with a manager of a multihousehold building), or in a case where a protected user is not a contracting party in the family, he or she will have to make himself or herself known to the electricity operator.
ALDIS will allow to reduce administrative costs and ensure more flexible provision of the service and accurate control of State budget resources. Moreover, implementation of the new System has opened the market to any electricity operator, thus neither the competition nor the choice of users is restricted. At the moment two companies – i.e. A/S Latvenergo and SIA Tet – have applied for the provision of this service but other operators are welcome to do that as well. According to the information provided by the Public Utilities Commission, there are currently 34 registered electricity operators in Latvia out of which 13 operators are actively operating on the market. They purchase electricity from 10 distribution operators.
The government has taken a decision to provide aid to the protected users by employing new methodology, since analysis of the previous regulation had demonstrated that it was not effective and restricted competition, and also the service was received by approximately half of the protected users qualifying for it. Administrative performance of the regulation was also burdensome – the service provider had to identify itself the correspondence of the status of a protected user, accept applications, make a complicated calculation of the amount of aid, and perform its application and manual monitoring etc.
Taking into account that ALDIS contains sensitive data, it will not be public and only its manager, i.e. the SCCB, and its authorised persons will be able to access it. The protected users will be able to check if they qualify for the status of a protected user and also view the available and historical aid granted in the e-service “Identification of the Status of a Protected User” established on the State public service portal at www.latvija.lv. It will also be possible within the framework of this e-service to change a contract in respect of which the reduction has been applied to, and also refuse the aid.
Any questions related to the new System or inquiries concerning problems can be sent by the protected users to the e-mail address: atbalsts@aldis.bvkb.gov.lv.
Operation of ALDIS is governed by the Cabinet Regulation No. 345 of 1 June 2021, Regulations Regarding Trade Service of the Protected User, that will come into force on 1 September 2021.
