B.E.L. Wants to Increase Electricity Rates

Five months after a rate decrease, it is likely that electricity rates will go up. The last decrease in July, afforded consumers a thirty-five cents cut per kilo watt hour. Today, the Public Utilities Commission announced that BEL has submitted a request for a rate increase because of a “underestimation of the Cost of Power impact of B.E.L.’s Gas Turbine and an overestimation of the COP impact, primarily due to lower rates from Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE).”  B.E.L. is seeking an eleven percent increase in the Mean Electricity Rate from the current thirty-five cents to thirty-eight cents which the utility company says will reflect the actual cost of power for the 2012 – 2016 Full Tariff Review Period. While that request is before the PUC, another commodity that is going up is the price of white sugar beginning January first, 2016.  The Ministry of Economic Development, Petroleum, Investment, Trade and Commerce, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, have signed off on the required SI to increase the retail price at seventy-five cents per pound countrywide.