BVIEC’s 25% revenue loss won’t mean higher bills, consumers told
Electricity consumers are being assured their monthly billing rates will remain the same despite a ‘significant’ drop in the BVI Electricity Corporation’s (BVIEC) revenue stream.
General Manager at BVIEC, Leroy Abraham said though it has been 10 months since the 2017 hurricanes, a large percentage of customers are still ‘off the electricity grid’ for various reasons.
“Our customer base has reduced by approximately 20 percent in totality. So, for any business to lose 20 percent of its customers, it is significant … We lost 25 percent of revenue.”
He said BVIEC’s customer base and electricity production will only be restored to pre-hurricane standings when the territory rebuilds fully.
The general manager, however, said BVIEC customers should not be concerned whether the monthly price they pay for electricity will increase.
“We have very transparent pricing here at BVIEC and it hasn’t changed in approximately 40 years,” Abraham said at a media conference on Wednesday.
“One element of your bill which hasn’t changed is your fixed cost, which is the rate. The only fluctuating element of your bill, as all of us know, is the fuel variation surcharge and that is constant across the board for all customers.”
Abraham said petroleum products are the single largest expense for the electricity company. He said the products are BVIEC’s largest expense because the BVI is fully reliant on fossil fuels.
Two petroleum product suppliers – SOL and Delta Petroleum – have each submitted bids to supply the BVIEC with these products for the next five years.
SOL is proposing to supply the products for nearly $90 million while Delta is proposing to supply the same products for more than $93 million.
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The government has being owing electricity for donkey years.just asking, have the government ever came up with a financial plan as to how they can replace the funds to electricity department for what they owed? Certain establishments like the Hospital that owes over $300,00i0.00 in electricity bill i’m sure hasn’t paid back one penny but you can’t disconnect them because it cannot function without current. So how can the government sort out this Dilemma?
During the 7 months that BVIEC was restoring power after Irma many BVI residents learned how to live comfortably with modern quiet efficient generators, battery/inverter power, solar cells, etc. Some of these residents are happy to be in control of their own electrical supply. The almost daily annoying and unscheduled BVIEC power cuts at 6-9 AM and PM prior to Irma were probably a factor for some residents deciding to stay off the BVIEC grid.
The BVIEC pricing structure should be such to 1) cover operations and maintenance for production/generation, transmission and distribution and 2) capitalizing the system. The damaging effects of Hurricane Irma and Maria resulting in reduced revenues by approximately 25% yet the BVIEC operations has not been affected. This may suggest that there is a lot fluff in the pricing system.
On the average, it appears as if consumers cost per KWh may be inflated. BVIEC has make a profit to cover (a) emergencies, (b) capitalizing system as needed. Nonetheless, is the profit margin to high? The price per barrel of fossil fuel dropped spectacularly on the world market, going from over $100 per barrel to just north of $50 per barrel, however, did the fuel surcharge drop commensurately with the market?
I, for one, am VERY happy that there will be NO INCREASE… Thank you BVIEC!