P.U.C . holds cost of power forum
Called “the cost of power forum”, it is part of a highly charged process in the first full tariff review proceedings for Belize Electricity Limited, which will ultimately determine the new rates of the essential service for the next four years. Organized by the Public Utilities Commission, for the rest of the month, a power team will be touring the country to hold information sessions and answer questions. According to special consultant to the PUC, Derek Davis, such meetings are critical to the public’s understanding of the dynamics of distributing electricity in Belize.
Derek Davis, Consultant, P.U.C.
?One informative, and two to get some feedback from the public as to whether they are happy with the structure and the mechanisms that are being used to regulate the industry. If they are not, then do you have suggestions because there are some well informed people in the public. So you have suggestions which we can use to improve it.?
?The cost of electricity is regulated and the utility is held responsible to perform with a certain level of efficiency so you could say on the transmission distribution system, they are required to perform at a certain level of efficiency with a certain per unit cost efficiency so from that perspective, the PUC regulates that part of the cost and then there is the other part which this seminar is mainly about which is the cost of power. The cost of power simply depends on the marketplace. For example, you have to buy oil. Belize doesn?t have the control over prices of oil. So from that perspective, you cannot fully control the price. But if oil goes down, then the price goes down. If oil goes up, then you have to adjust to the public so that the investor can recover his funds, his investment.?
The PUC panel will be meeting on Thursday night at seven at the Radisson, at the George Price Centre in Belmopan on Friday night and next week, the team will travel to Dangriga, Orange Walk, San Pedro and San Ignacio to hold similar sessions with area residents.
