Effective tomorrow your electricity rate is going up! As we told you on Friday, the Public Utilities Commission has made the decision based on BEL's cost of power in the past year - which skyrocketed!
It went so high that the company ended up spending 45 million dollars more than it had budgeted to buy power. The company sent its figures to the PUC for the annual review - and when the PUC did the math, the Utility was effectively requesting a rate increase to about 55 cents per kilowatt hour - about one-third more than the 41 cents you are currently paying.
PUC gave them half of that - which works out to about 48 cents per kilowatt hour. It's still a 17% increase for you as the PUC Chairman explained at a Press Conference on Friday:
John Avery, Chairman - PUC
"The new approved electricity rate is now 48.86 cents which is approximate 16.87% above the existing 41.81 mean electricity rate."
"Because this is a fairly big increase certainly it will put our productive and business sector at a disadvantage comparatively. It's not something we like to do and we try to minimize the impact on consumers while not putting any additional strain on the utility "
BEL declined comment today saying it was still reviewing the PUC Decision and would comment in the New Year.
The main cause of increased costs is power purchased from Mexico. More had to be bought this year because rainfall was low - causing below average hydroelectric production.
Though the new rates go into effect tomorrow - you still have seven calendar days to write to the PUC with your objections.
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