Home News Local news January WAPA Bill May be Up and Down

January WAPA Bill May be Up and Down

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Jan. 6, 2005 – The territory's consumers will notice an increase in their January electric bill although water consumers may notice a slight reduction.
Based on an order from the Public Services Commission, the V.I. Water and Power Authority will increase its levelized energy adjustment clause from 0.134 cents per kilowatt-hour to 0.138 cents per kwh, a release from the utility issued Thursday stated.
This will result in an overall increase of $2 for residential consumers using an average of 500 kwh per month.
Commercial customers using the average 1,200 kwh monthly will see an overall increase of $4.80 or 1.59 percent in the overall January billing, while large power customers will see an increase of 1.94 percent, according to the release.
However, residential water consumers using an average of 2,400 gallons per month will notice a 1 percent reduction in their LEAC, equivalent to 0.45 cents.
WAPA Executive Director Alberto Bruno-Vega said Thursday the increase reflects a decision made by the PSC.
According to Bruno-Vega, WAPA had announced in November that the December LEAC would be increased to 0.146 cents per kwh and consumers would have realized a reduction in January.
However, the PSC ordered WAPA not to implement the increase in the December rates, so the hike was never realized.
"They maintained that the same LEAC used in November – 0.134 cents per kwh – should be kept at the same level in December," Bruno Vega said.
In doing this, WAPA was not allowed to recoup high costs of fuel in November, Bruno-Vega said. The PSC decided instead to spread out the LEAC increase that would have been realized in December over a 24-month period, Bruno-Vega added.
"If our numbers had been applied, consumers would have realized a drop in the LEAC in January," Bruno-Vega said. "What we are trying to do is on a month-by-month basis adjust the LEAC based on the price of fuel."
Members of the PSC could not be reached Thursday because of the Three Kings holiday.

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