Power outages cause irreparable losses for businesses in Dagestan

Entrepreneurs in Dagestan suffer significant losses due to power outages, but do not try to demand compensation for damages, considering litigation with Dagenergo to be a sure loser.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, residents of Makhachkala and Kaspiysk have repeatedly complained about frequent power outages. In the summer, power outages also led to interruptions in water supply. On August 12 and 13, in some areas of Makhachkala and Kaspiysk, periodic outages and low water pressure were observed.

Regular power outages in different areas of Makhachkala and Kaspiysk continue, although in the last week, when the intense heat subsided, there were comparatively fewer outages, local residents told a "Kavkazsky Uzel" correspondent.

Thus, on the afternoon of August 18 there was no power in the village of Kirpichny Kaspiysk, Shamil told a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot". In Makhachkala, on Irchi Kazak Street, the power is turned off almost every day, Magomed reported. According to him, in response to complaints to Dagenergo, they say that "planned work is underway."

The owner of a grocery store Zakir suffered losses of tens of thousands of rubles due to power outages in July and August. "We had to throw out ice cream, frozen semi-finished products, dairy products went bad. The refrigerator burned out due to power surges. "It is useless to go to court: it will take a lot of time to prove that it was not my fault, and there is no hope that the losses will be compensated," the entrepreneur told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The owner of the cafe Zaripat reported that her establishment had to stop working for some time. "The cafe did not work for several days, since we could not guarantee the proper storage of meat and other products. Until the power outages stopped, we closed, perishable products were stored at the workers' homes," she said.

The founder of a chain of catering establishments in Kaspiysk Emilia Kazumova has been in the restaurant business for 10 years: her chain includes pastry shops and coffee shops, and also provides off-site catering.

"Almost every year there is a power outage at the end of July and the first two weeks of August. For us, this is simply a disaster, because this is the time of the peak tourist season, and local residents living in other cities come home on vacation. Every year we lose about 40% of our revenue due to power outages during this period. For example, we have a confectionery shop and products in the ovens. If the oven turns off, the pastries fall, it's defective, we have to throw them away. Now is the peak of the wedding season, there are a lot of customers for wedding cakes and so on. And at any moment, due to a power outage, we can let the client down," says Kazumova.

She noted that she did not file complaints anywhere, since in Dagestan this is pointless. "To do this, you need to invite a commission that must record the event, prove the loss, etc. When you are fighting for the client every minute, you have a lot of other concerns that you must resolve very quickly. Therefore, you record what happened as a force majeure loss and move on, since for us, being distracted by the courts is a waste of time that we can spend working with the client. Perhaps next year we will prepare for this in advance, study the legal regulations to understand what kind of lawyer to hire to deal with this. Frankly speaking, I think that the problems of businesses will be heard last of all, because the problems of residents are solved first. I think that people have repeatedly written and complained, and sued. But I do not know of any high-profile cases where people were compensated for something,” says the entrepreneur.

According to Kazumova, her business has an official contract with the power grid for the supply of electricity. “High consumption, and accordingly, we pay a lot. We pay for electricity in full, but you can’t count on always having light and normal voltage. Businesses pay more for all utilities than an ordinary resident. Entrepreneurs in Dagestan have long since learned to survive and do everything on their own, because they cannot count on any support,” she complains.

It is very difficult to obtain compensation for losses incurred due to the fault of the electricity supplier due to outages, lawyer Ali Aliyev told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

He recalled that the supplier is exempt from liability if the outage occurred due to natural disasters, accidents due to the fault of third parties, and the actions of the consumer related to a malfunction of the internal network.

“The court can recognize the breakdown of equipment, for example, a refrigerator, as the fault of the supplier if several conditions are met: violation of electricity quality standards, confirmed by an act on voltage fluctuations, a causal relationship between the interruption and the breakdown - here an expert opinion is needed, as well as the absence of fault of the entrepreneur. For example, if the contract does not provide for the installation of stabilizers, and their absence led to a breakdown, the court may dismiss the claim," the lawyer said.

He added that to file a claim in court, you need an act on the disruption of electricity supply, a document on the cost of repairing the equipment, a certificate of loss of goods due to power outages.

The office of the Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs' Rights of Dagestan has still not received written requests from entrepreneurs who have suffered losses due to power outages, although it is aware of the scale of the problem. Difficulties with connecting commercial facilities to power grids and uninterrupted power supply remain a systemic problem for small and medium-sized businesses: the lack of available capacity hinders the implementation of investment projects, and poor quality of power supply leads to damage to equipment, disruption of production processes and additional costs for generators and stabilizers. In addition, entrepreneurs are concerned about the growth of tariffs for electricity and water supply, which directly affects the cost of products and services, said a representative of the department.

“Relations between entrepreneurs and the energy supply organization are built on a contractual basis. Rosseti is not a government agency, so the Office of the Commissioner has no right to interfere in their business activities. Nevertheless, we provide entrepreneurs with legal support: we consult, explain the procedure for going to court in the event of losses incurred, and inform about judicial practice. In addition, we record and summarize incoming information so that in the event of systemic problems we can send appropriate signals to the authorities,” the business ombudsman’s office told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

* the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.