And in other news, since the start of the dry season, consumers have been complaining that their electricity bills have seen significant increases. Well Today we spoke to the CEO the the Ministry of Public Utilities who broke down why they may be seeing the increase:
Leeroy Almendarez, CEO - MPUEL
"If we were generating all the power we need then we control that, unfortunately when you're consuming more, that's also a strain on BEL they must find the power to supply to your homes when everybody puts on their lights at the same time. We import over 50 percent of our power from Mexico, over 50 percent and that's quite a lot now do we control the prices on that? We don't and because we don't control the prices and power is a pass through meaning whatever it's purchased for that's the power let us say if BEL buys it 10 cents per kilowatt hour, that's capacity that you're using, you are supposed to pay ten cents as well but that's not what is happening that's why they these requests are made to the Public Utilities Commission. Well on a yearly basis, for PUC to review and see what are the changes that have occurred and how BEL may be able to recover the cost that it did not pass through to consumers."
"If you take a look at your light bill, you will see that you have different bands and it tells you what it costs just like when you go to buy to the store. Between 0 and 50 it's about 34 cents per kilowatt hour, if you multiply that that's all you use, that's your bill.But once you go to 51. There's a band now 51-200 and there's another cost per kilowatt hour there as well. Multiply all of those things and at the bottom line it tells you what your bill is so first thing to look at is look at that bill and look at your consumption overtime and see how that has increased. For a bill to go from 100 to 700 you know that's a stretch when you really think about it but again look at the consumption. Take a look at your electricity in your homes as well to make sure leaking is not occurring and that even though you believe, you probably left on you know I must also say this and the electricity people and electrical engineers will tell you, if you keep something plugged in, if you keep everything plugged in, those things are still pushing power."
