Electricity bills for customers of Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) have gone from unreasonable to unbearable since the beginning of the year.

But we are now told from BPL, its regulator, the Utilities Competition and Regulation Authority (URCA), and the new minister responsible, JoBeth Coleby-Davis, that relief is in sight.

This summer, many BPL consumers experienced their highest bills ever, while also dealing with outages that have now, thankfully, become less frequent.

It was a nightmare that we pray we will never have to experience again.

To recap, in June 2020, BPL entered into a fuel strategy which locked in a fuel charge rate of 10.5 cents/Kwh for all customers, which required hedge trades.

BPL ceased some of the hedging after the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) came to office, throwing the scheme, and the locked in fuel charge, out of whack.

The government then subsidized certain fuel costs for BPL to the tune of more than $100 million to provide price stability to consumers as the economy emerged from the pandemic.

This was, of course, unsustainable.

In October 2022, BPL implemented a glide path strategy to recoup costs incurred when the fuel charge was suspended.

BPL's glide path strategy was designed to slowly increase the fuel charge to a peak this summer and then decrease the fuel adjustment charge until the end of February 2024, after which, bills would accurately reflect the cost of fuel acquired by BPL.

However, this meant that fuel charges nearly tripled for many consumers.

The glide-path outlined that the fuel charge would go no higher for consumers who use under 800 kWh per month from September 1 through November 30.

Consumers who use over 800 kWh would see the fuel charge decrease during the same quarter.

As of December 1, all BPL consumers should experience a lower fuel charge, with consumers who use over 800 kWh per hour seeing a sizeable drop.

In a statement released last week, URCA said that over the course of months, it has received an increasing number of complaints from BPL customers about high electricity bills.

"URCA considers electricity a basic necessity that should be affordable and remains concerned about the impact of high electricity bills on BPL's customers and the economy," it said.

"Considering the widespread complaints, and in accordance with its commitment to protect consumers, URCA has been monitoring the situation."

It said that in reviewing consumer complaints, it found that consumers have, unfortunately, experienced the compound billing effects of increased demand during the summer months and the increase in the fuel charge via the glide path strategy.

"Typically, some people's consumption of electricity doubles in the summer months due to air conditioning and children being home from school. The doubling of consumption multiplied by the fuel charge, which is almost three times what it was last summer, means many consumers' bills are significantly higher," URCA noted.

What URCA said aligns with BPL's glide path strategy announced last year.

However, it does not quite align with what BPL Chief Executive Officer Shevonn Cambridge said in July.

Cambridge explained during an interview with radio host Dwight Strachan on "Morning Blend" on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM, that the glide path to recover money lost while BPL kept fuel charges to consumers artificially low would normalize by November.

"Come November, we're gonna go back to the real time market pricing, along with what is being supplemented by the hedge that remains," Cambridge said.

"So, it's just a real time pass-through of the fuel costs. But all of the market forecasts are that the fuel is going to trend down barring anything on the worldwide market."

Meantime, Coleby-Davis has not been so bold as to give an actual date for bills to come down.

She told reporters that she spoke with Cambridge, who told her that relief from high bills is in sight.

"I'm not sure what the date is," she said.

"So I don't want to quote a month. But I'm hoping that it's soon, because it seems as if the major part of the scale is coming to an end now."

It appears that URCA has had the most recent and substantive conversation with BPL, therefore, its timeline is hopefully more accurate.

The level of distress caused by this fiasco at BPL was wholly avoidable.

The biggest problem BPL has is that it is owned by the government, which has mismanaged it for decades.

We hope that the current administration has learned its lesson.

The Bahamian people cannot take much more.

The post More promises on BPL appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

The post More promises on BPL appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

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