EDP has appealed against its fine of €7.5 million imposed by the Regulatory Authority for Energy Services.
The fine was issued due to infringements in the tariff scheme designed to help poorer customers.
"We have a profound disagreement with the Regulator. This fine has no meaning and is disproportionate to the facts. We have always promoted the social tariff," said EDP Commercial’s President, Miguel Stilwell d´Andrade.
"There have been operational lapses that have been fixed, without prejudice to consumers," said Stilwell, adding that "the social tariff makes sense."
For Stilwell, the tariff makes sense only if the taxpayer picks up the bill, not the company.
"In the case of this social support, it makes sense that it is paid by the state," said Stilwell as EDP currently subsidises the scheme to around 100,000 customers but the Regulator says that EDP has not been trying hard enough to identify poorer customers and arrange cheaper electricity tariffs for them.
Miguel Stilwell d´Andrade says that "We have a clear conscience that we did what we had to do. We go far beyond what we have to do" and that only 4% of cases had shown problems resulted from "operational lapses which have been corrected."
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EDP - Energias de Portugal (formerly Electricidade de Portugal) ranks among Europe's major electricity operators, as well as being one of Portugal's largest business groups.
In December 2011, China Three Gorges Corporation acquired a 21.35% Portuguese government's stake in Energias de Portugal for €2.69 billion.
The current shareholders include:
People Republic of China
China Three Gorges
Guoxin International Investment Co., Ltd
Capital Group Companies, Inc.
Oppidum
BlackRock, Inc.
Senfora BV Sovereign fund from Abu Dhabi.
Grupo BCP + Fundo de Pensões do Grupo BCP
Sonatrach (Algerian government)
Qatar Investment Authority
The company made €1.2 billion profit in 2014.
