BELCO Fee Changes To Take Effect June 1st
The Energy Commission has approved a proposal by BELCO to replace the existing fixed monthly residential Facilities Charge with a graduated fee structure.
The revised graduated Facilities Charge will go into effect on June 1, 2014, and the company said it will result in 44% of customers seeing reductions on their bills, 28% will be unaffected, while 28% of the highest energy users will see their bills increase slightly.
A spokesperson said, “The Facilities Charge covers the cost of specific infrastructure and business services required for each metered connection. The revised graduated Facilities Charge that will be implemented next month is in response to the call to assist lower income customers who struggle to meet monthly bills during these difficult economic times.
“In addition, a graduated Facilities Charge should also encourage electricity conservation as residential customers may strive to move to a lower cost tier or conserve to ensure that they do not move to a higher cost tier.
“All residential customers now pay a fixed $33 per month Facilities Charge regardless of their energy usage. The revised graduated Facilities Charge will go into effect on June 1, 2014, reducing costs for lower usage residential customers and slightly increasing the overall cost for those who consume the highest number of kilowatt hours [kWh] per month. All residential customers should soon receive individual letters advising them of how they will be affected based on their prior kWh usage.
“As a result of the approval of the graduated Facilities Charge, 44 percent of BELCO customers will see reductions for this charge in their monthly electricity bills, 28 percent will be unaffected, and 28 percent of the highest energy users will see their overall monthly electricity bills increase slightly due to a higher Facilities Charge. The total amount of a customer’s overall monthly electricity bill is dependent upon energy consumption.
“The graduated Facilities Charge is based on each customer’s average daily kilowatt hour consumption over the previous 12 month period, which will be reassessed monthly updating the Annual Rolling Average.
“The only exception to the graduated Facilities Charge is for residential customers who have renewable energy generating systems and are on BELCO’s Net Metering Programme. The Facilities Charge for these residential customers will remain fixed at $33 per month. Customers on the Net Metering Programme draw energy from the grid when needed and intermittently sell excess power back to the grid when their consumption is less than what is being produced by their personal renewable energy systems.
“The cost of Net Metering is subsidised by all rate payers, including the lower usage customers whom the graduated Facilities Charge is targeted to help.”
“It is important to note that the revised Facilities Charge is revenue neutral to BELCO and will not provide any additional profit to the utility, as the increase in revenue from higher usage customers is offset by the reduction in revenue from customers who use less electricity and who will be charged a lower amount.”
And you PLP supporters say the OBA/UBP aren’t looking after us! Lol
This has nothing to do with Government. Belco is simply shifting the cost around so the energy hogs have to pay more. Here is some basic math to prove it.
($33*1)=$33.
($15*0.26) + ($25*0.18) + ($33*0.28) + ($49.5*0.22) + ($75*0.06) = $33
At the end of the day…they are still bringing in the same amount of money, hence, Belco is still making the same amount as they were before.
This is the sign of changing time. To be fair the PLP and UBP never gave a s***…both these parties put zero pressure on the utilities board to stand up to this fat cat monopoly. The tiered approach should have been done 20 years ago when the rest of the world went that way. BELCO should also be charging cheap rates late at night.
This is great nooze.
Finally the Senate and House of Assembly with be made to pay extra for all that hot air.
Ooops…………
Damn I was close but they don’t have to pay to play………………..Bawahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I need a rum.
Heppy 26th May………
So the “facility fee” which was originally implemented on the basis that it covers the cost of providing the service to the residence has now been changed. It’s now become a fee for Belco to force family users, who have a larger usage, to subsidize single households who use less electricity.
Large families are now subsidizing the single professionals.
Way to go Belco.
What about single non-professionals? Single mothers of one? Single men with no kids? More like all this time we were subsidizing you. Let’s see,I only have 1 light on at a time (2 at the most), either the TV or the computer on, never both, I’m out of the house more than I’m in because nobody’s helping me pay the rent, yet I have been paying the same amount. The system is a pile of s*** but that is just another load on the pile.
Why do we even bother with an “Energy Commission”.
Its all window dressing folks. Belco calls the shots.
“The facilities charge covers the cost of specific infrastructure and business services required for each metered connection”. Written by a politician (I bet) as it is total BS. Tell us what the specific infrastructure is.
I worked the new “scheme” out and BELCO does actually make more money by
applying the new method, so who are you lying to. Not much but don’t come across as the good guy here. Further more stop giving money to cricket and the likes – that’s our money – give it back to us, like Garry Madeiros did one year. Guess his conscience pricked him.
You worked it out? Please, show me the math.
Old
($33*1)=$33.
New
($15*0.26) + ($25*0.18) + ($33*0.28) + ($49.5*0.22) + ($75*0.06) = $33
If you do the actual math its roughly $33.03 however im sure those percentages have all been rounded up/down for simplicity. If you take the actual percentages im sure it is the EXACT same.
I said not much – just in case you don’t know .03 cents “is not much”.
That $0.03 is due to the rounding off off percentages
Unless the total number of meters (accounted for) is a multiple of 5 or 100 there is no way you would reach a whole number for those of those percentages. It is CLEARLY evident those percentages were rounded. And to further back up my math, they said this have no change in revenue. So. Yes I am calling you out LIZARD! You either do not understand the discrepancy or you are purposely trying to make a scene like the PLP always do.
Prove me wrong with match and I will apologize.
Sincerely, yours
Auto correct blows
Assuming Belco has given you accurate figures for the percentage of users in each band. Possible but highly doubtful.
Guess you did not read where Belco said they would make
$16,000 less revenue. How is that “Exactly the same” as you put it.
You sound like Belco management, or ex or a shareholder.
Go figure!
belco charges for the same piece of cable coming into your house over and over you pay for the meter the same they are still a bunch of blood sucking vanpires
Good point frank.
Now publish a list of management and shareholders.
That’s where it all lies/lyes/lieze…………………
Go haid.
Show me the list and I can show at least $400 million in property.
And what about the Fuel Adjustment charge, what’s happened with that?
Soooooooo….they are only changing the fixed Facilities Surcharge, but not the Fuel Adjustment, which is actually what doubles your bill? People are getting excited over saving $8-$18 per month?
If find it laughable, at best, that they have the nerve to say “Percentage Increase/Decrease On Overall Bill”. That is complete BS – you are saving on a PORTION of the bill, not the overall bill. Do they truly think that $18 a month is going to make a huge difference? Yay…now folks can buy one extra loaf of bread, carton of milk and some eggs. SMDH!
Yes, it is laughable particularly the percentage gimmick. They set the change to take affect just at the time we need to turn on the air conditioning as well. Tell me they won’t see a revenue increase.
They should lose the fuel adjustment. This may actually force them to move faster on solar, wind and ocean energy alternatives.
It won’t be long before green technology is affordable to everyone. Think belco, think!
How does $33- $49.50 add up to a 3.8% increase???????
How does $33- $75.00 add up to a 3.9% increase??????? WELL BELCO PLEASE DO TELL US HOW YOU DID YOUR MATH!
It’s an increase to the total bill. Sneaky way to disguise it. Like the 1% payroll tax increase…..
Sa-weeeeeet!!
BELCO is full of ****!
belco are the GREEDIEST bunch of scavengers on de rock!
The sooner we get another Power Company here to piss off belco the better!
If you don’t like it you can simply generate your own lack olive.
Lack o lite
Exactly ‘say say say’.
All those ‘struggling’ homeowners who installed thousands of dollars of PV solar equipment to reduce their net energy usage from Belco now need a break. They’ve managed to reduce their average daily kWhr usage to the minimum so they’ll now be subsidized by those of us that couldn’t afford to spend thousands of dollars to instal solar.
They got a subsidy from government to instal their solar panels (thanks to my taxes) and now they’re getting monthly subsidies from us thanks to Belco.
Family man you hit the nail on the head there, all recipients of the $5,000 rebate from govt. should be expected to pay it forward once the systems pay themselves off, what government has done is subsidize those who could well afford to go solar and end the rebate when those less able thought energy independence was within their grasp.Typical.
If you read the article, you would see that the graduated facilities charge will not be applied to net metered customers (those with pv).
Solar panels take up to 15 years pay back, provided nothing happens to them. People who buy solar panels these days are simply helping generate funds for the future development of solar panels. They are very minimally helping themselves out in the process.
Unless you are rich or a super green person, I wouldn’t invest.
We got some der panels a year ago and are on track for a 6 year payback so you might wanna check those numbers SolarP.
So now families, who have larger usage, will subsidize single households, who use less electricity.
Families, many who have members out of work, already struggling and at home even more will now subsidize the single household, most of whom are single professionals who are most probably out at work all day.
Its quite simple – change your behaviour (usage) and you will pay less! You seemed to have missed that simple point! Shouldn’t you be out looking for a job anyway instead of being home all day if your not incapacitated due to age or disability?!
Either Way Belco wins!!
Find it odd my ~30kwh daily average has suddenly shot up to 50kwh since these new fees were first announced weeks ago.
I’m not saying its a conspiracy, but I do find it a strange coincidence.
So why don’t we shut down their profits by using the bare necessity of power. Let’s sacrifice some creature comforts and hit them where it hurts. Imagine if we all did that for a week or two.
That would just cause the cost of power to increase…