The Puerto Rico Energy Bureau approved today, Thursday night, a reduction of 2.79 cents per kilowatt hour (kWH) in the cost of electricity for the last three months of the yearwhich represents a reduction of just under $23.00 on the bill for residential customers.
The entity explained, through written statements, that The reduction is mainly due to the downward projections in the price of oil at a global level and, to a lesser extent, to a credit for the purchase of energy that favored consumers in the reconciliation process.
The new reduction approved by the Energy Bureau joins the accelerated reconciliation announced at the end of July that reduced the cost of electricity service by 2.75 cents.
The current cost per kWH is 30.38 cents, while with the approved resolution, the cost will be reduced to 27.59 cents. The new reduced cost will be reflected in the bills for October, November and December, added the Energy Bureau.
Meanwhile, the resolution issued by the Bureau also granted to the Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and LUMA Energy 20 days to satisfy a request for information following the public corporation requested to recover as a prudent and reasonable expense a penalty of $7,296,651.39 for not using a natural gas reserve requested from the New Fortress supplier.
The Bureau understood that PREPA apparently notified New Fortress late that it would not need the natural gas reserved by the company.
In addition, the entity indicated that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) determined that certain expenses for fuel used for various emergency generators following the passage of hurricane mariatotaling $5,759,476, are not eligible for reimbursement.
However, the Energy Bureau decided to postpone the recovery of said expenses through subscribers until FEMA’s determination, which PREPA appealed, is final and firm.
“If the appeal is not successful, the aforementioned item must be included as part of the request for the next reconciliation,” warned the Energy Bureau.
