If, like everyone else, you've been struggling with sharp increases in your electricity bill, you'd better brace. The Public Utilities Commission has given an initial decision approving a new billing mechanism for BEL called "COPA". While BEL frames it as a move toward transparency, what it actually means is that fluctuations in the cost of imported power will now be passed directly and automatically onto your monthly light bill.
But, according to the PUC's official public notice, the regulator denied BEL's request to independently implement those automatic monthly adjustments. By law, the commission notes, only the PUC can approve rate changes.
So instead of giving BEL a blank check, the PUC is proposing what it calls a "Regulatory Sandbox" as a testing environment.
What does that mean for you? It means-if the COPA is fully approved-BEL cannot change your bill on a whim. Throughout this trial period, BEL must submit a detailed operational and financial breakdown to the regulator every single month. If the data doesn't back it up, the PUC won't approve the adjustment. Today, BEL Chairman Lynn Young explained what it could mean for consumers' monthly bills:
Lynn Young, Executive Chairman - BEL
"So the suggestion was to try to smoothen the effect on customers rather than wait a year or two and then having to adjust the rates by six cents or five cents or whatever. And so it's going to be on a monthly basis that we'll take a six-month average of the cost of oil compared to what is in the rates. And let's say the rolling six months for the first, the last six months was 32 cents per kilowatt-hour, then that's two cents per kilowatt-hour more than what's built into the rates. But this mechanism is going to limit it at one and a half cents, the adjustment either way, right? So then the customer would get an extra one and a half cents as a cost of power adjustment on the bill. As I was explaining, most of the cost, about 70% of our customers are residential customers that burn about $200 per month. So a customer like that would probably see something like maybe a $5 adjustment to the bill if it was a full 1.5 cents. It could be less."
"The last year the company had some struggles trying to pay CFE and there were times when CFE actually said, 'Listen, if you don't come up with money, we're going to have to disconnect you.' So we can't continue to put the country's electricity supply at risk, right? So we have to try to put things in place to make sure that we eliminate that risk as much as we can."
Reporter-
"We know that the adjustment is capped at approximately 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, but under what circumstances would consumers experience the maximum increase?"
Lynn Young, Executive Chairman - BEL
"That's a hard question because it all depends on the cost of power, especially as it's driven by the cost from Mexico. Like I said, sometimes we are getting like a dollar US per kilo for power from Mexico. And then sometimes it drops down to five cents. I think as we explained, we are doing things to try to manage that, like trying to get batteries online, trying to get more solar online, to try to be in a position where we don't have to buy expensive power."
We stress the PUC is inviting public comments as this decision is not final, and so at this time there is no change to your bill.
