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(1) A supplier of electricity shall ensure that the cumulative electricity interruption for each customer within an operational year does not exceed 

(a)  forty-eight hours, in a metropolitan or municipal area, or industrial estate;

(b)  seventy-two hours, in a district capital; and

(c)  one hundred and forty-four hours, in a rural area.

(2) Despite sub regulation (1) the supplier shall ensure that the electricity interruption to a customer’s premises within an operational year does not exceed six periods.

(3) Despite sub regulations (1) and (2) the duration of each outage shall not exceed

(a) eight hours, in a metropolitan or municipal area or industrial estate;

(b) twelve hours, in a district capital; and

(c) twenty four hours, in rural areas.

(4) For the purposes of sub regulations (1), (2) and (3) the period of an interruption shall be consistent and commence from the time the supplier is initially informed by 

(a) a customer that the supply to the customer’s premises has been interrupted; or

(b) a person other than the customer or is otherwise made aware by the operation of any automatic system operated by the supplier in circumstances in which the supply to the customer’s premises has been interrupted or may reasonably be expected to have been interrupted.  

(5) Despite sub regulations (1), (2) (3) and (4), an interruption of supply to a customer shall not be treated as wrongful where

(a) the interruption was as a result of a major fault or damage to an indispensable equipment  in  the  electricity supplier’s  distribution system subject to sub-regulation (6);

(b) the interruption was as a result of a failure of, fault in or damage to either the transmission system to which the electricity supplier’s distribution system was connected or a generating station connected to that transmission system; or

(c) the interruption was as a result of a failure of, fault in or damage to a generating station connected to the supplier’s distribution system. 

(d) the  interruption  was  one  to  which  the  Electricity  Supply  and  Distribution (Technical and Operational) Rules, 2005 (LI 1816) applies. 

(e) the customer informed the supplier that the customer did not wish the supplier to take any action.

(6) Where a major outage was due to the negligence of the supplier, paragraph (a) of sub-regulation (5) shall not apply.

(7) A supplier shall, subject to these Regulations, pay into the Energy Fund the sum prescribed in the Schedule where that supplier is in breach of the supply interruption limits specified in sub-regulations (1) (2) and (3).

(8) Subject to regulation 19, the sum prescribed in the Schedule shall not be paid by the supplier where 

(a)  the supplier has not received a claim for compensation from the customer within a period of three months after the expiry of the relevant year;

(b)  the interruptions were not in respect of supply to the same premises; or

(c)  the customer or where more than one person is the customer, at least one such person was not the customer of the premises to which the supply was interrupted on the occasion of each of the interruptions as a result of which this regulation applies.