By Breaking Belize News Staff: If your electricity bill has been looking unusually high since the start of the dry season you are not imagining it and you are not alone.
Belizeans across the country have been raising concerns about significant increases in their monthly bills and on Wednesday the CEO of the Ministry of Public Utilities Leeroy Almendarez sat down to explain exactly what is driving those numbers up.
The short answer is consumption and imports. The longer answer is a bit more complicated.
Almendarez confirmed that Belize currently imports over fifty percent of its electricity from Mexico. That single fact is at the heart of the problem. Because Belize does not control the prices on imported power, electricity operates on what is called a pass through basis. That means whatever BEL pays for the power per kilowatt hour is what consumers are expected to pay in return.
“If BEL buys it at ten cents per kilowatt hour, that is capacity that you are using and you are supposed to pay ten cents as well,” Almendarez explained, adding that the Public Utilities Commission reviews these costs on a yearly basis to assess what changes have occurred and how much BEL can recover.
The CEO also broke down exactly how bills are calculated through a band system. For consumers using between zero and fifty kilowatt hours, the rate sits at approximately 34 cents per kilowatt hour. But once consumption crosses into the 51 to 200 band another cost per kilowatt hour kicks in. Every band a consumer moves into adds to the bottom line total on their bill.
Almendarez urged Belizeans experiencing bill shock to first look at their own consumption before assuming there has been an error.
“For a bill to go from 100 to 700 dollars, you know that is a stretch when you really think about it but again look at the consumption,” he said.
He also reminded consumers that even appliances left on standby continue drawing power.
“If you keep something plugged in, if you keep everything plugged in, those things are still pushing power,” Almendarez warned.
The message from the Ministry is clear. High bills are largely a reflection of high usage during the dry season when demand spikes as Belizeans run fans, air conditioning units and other appliances at the same time.
Until Belize reduces its dependence on imported power, consumers will continue to feel the pressure of pass through pricing every time demand rises.
The post Your electricity bill is not a mistake; Public Utilities CEO explains why Belizeans are paying more this dry season appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff: If your electricity bill has been looking unusually high since the start of the dry season you are not imagining it and you are not alone. Belizeans across the country have been raising concerns about significant increases in their monthly bills and on Wednesday the CEO of the Ministry of
The post Your electricity bill is not a mistake; Public Utilities CEO explains why Belizeans are paying more this dry season appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
