Newly appointed Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) Chairman Leslie Miller is anticipating a tangible decrease on consumer's electricity bills by the end of the year.
Miller confirmed to Guardian Business that BEC's consumers no longer pay a fuel surcharge and some decreases in electricity prices are expected between now and the end of the year.
"Our goal is a minimum of a five percent decrease for commercial users and 10 percent decrease for residential, depending on the cost of fuel. If things are able to stabilize themselves in places like Iran, if that happens and the prices continue to go down, hopefully you see a decrease because everyone is desirous of it," Miller said.
He noted that the newly appointed board, which he heads, is expected to meet within the next week to discuss the way forward for the state-run utility company, as it seeks provide its consumers with safe, reliable electricity at the cheapest possible price.
The BEC chairman said cheaper, alternative energy sources would be one of the items topping the board's agenda in an effort to stabilize the cost of fuel.
"The prevailing circumstances on the world stage dictate what BEC pays for oil. We are looking to get agreements either with one of the major oil-producing countries in our region like Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Columbia," Miller explained. "Either we can get a government-to-government situation or let BEC have a contractual arrangement with the national corporations in those countries. That's the sort of thing that BEC looks forward to where it is dealing with the producer to try and stabilize the price."
Miller further revealed to Guardian Business that BEC would also be looking at retrofitting its apparatus to LNG and exploring the possibilities of solar and waste-based energy.
"Most powerful countries have now switched towards LNG. Solar energy is another area that we want to look at in a tangible way. We are looking to meet with the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to encourage the use of solar panels among Bahamians at a much more affordable price," he added. "The cheapest source of energy outside of oil is the use of solar panels. We believe that if BEC was to enter a contractual agreement with companies in China, they would be able to assist us here in The Bahamas with a very competitive or discounted price making them available in large quantities for BEC to be able to resell to consumers."
In May, top business leaders renewed the called for BEC's privatization. Dionisio D'Aguilar said the continued interruption in power is coming at a major cost to local businesses, and for BEC to function properly, privatization is imperative. D'Aguilar said his businesses lose untold dollars each year from blackouts. As an example, he said the BEC situation requires him to purchase and maintain nine generators at a cost of $500,000.
Jeffrey Knowles, the operations director at Aquapure, estimates that the company spent "in excess of $30,000" on blown equipment from sudden outages. While BEC occasionally calls the manufacturers to let them know an outage is coming, this level of proactiveness is not the norm.
In the meantime, Miller said BEC's new board is looking to make BEC a self-sustaining entity that the Bahamian people can benefit from.
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