The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has announced its initial decision on the Annual Review Proceedings (ARP) for the electricity sector. According to details supplied by the PUC, most of the existing tariffs would remain the same; however, commercial customers are being reclassified. Also, there are new fees and charges approved, particularly for tampering with electricity infrastructure.
The PUC did not approve a recommendation from the Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), made in its April 2, 2012 application, to charge interest on customers’ arrears older than 60 days. The counterargument to that proposition is that interest on customer deposits would, likewise, have to be considered.
Dr. Leroy Almendarez, the PUC’s Director of Tariffs and Administration, said that the PUC has approved a shift of some customers, now classified as residential, to a new commercial 1 classification (0 to 2500 kWh/month); however, there should be no change to the rates billed, since the rates for these two categories of customers would be the same.
Additionally, 198 customers would be moved from commercial 2 to commercial 1, to which lower rates would apply.
By way of explanation, Almendarez had previously said to us that, “BEL indicated that the residential category of customers is cluttered with customers they would prefer to call commercial 1, and hence this would streamline/clean up [the] residential category.”
Examples of new fees include a $10 fee for temporary disconnection by social, residential and commercial customers, and a new $100 fee for industrial customers seeking temporary disconnection.
Reconnection requests by industrial customers would be increased from $10 to $100, whereas the $18.00 fee for meter change testing would be removed.
Meter tampering charges would range from $100 for social, residential and commercial 1 customers to $5,000 for industrial customers.
Increases in annual pole rental fees are also proposed. No substantial change is recommended for telecoms operators, BTL and SMART. It’s been proposed that the current rate of $2.70 be increased slightly to $2.74. However, the recommended change for cable providers is more substantial, with a proposed increase from an average of $1.35 a pole a month to $2.58 per month. This amounts to a yearly per-pole rental fee of $32.85 for telecommunications providers and $30.95 for cable operators.
The schedule of customer deposits has also been substantially modified. The $50 deposit fee for social and residential customers would remain the same, but those to be reclassified as commercial 1 customers would have to pay deposit fees of $100.
The PUC does not agree with BEL’s request to charge customers for re-inspection for new services or due to a wireman’s work not being up to standard.
The PUC notes that the licensee (BEL) or interested parties representing users of 10% or more of the electricity consumed in the last calendar year may submit written comments on the Initial Decision by the close of business on Monday, May 14, 2012.
It added that, “The Commission will also consider comments on pole rental fees from interested parties directly affected by such fees.”