In an unusually concise 45-minute meeting Friday afternoon, Public Services Commission members quickly approved a slight increase in the electric levelized energy adjustment clause (LEAC) rate, which will bump the average monthly bill up by about $1.03 starting April 1.
The PSC also approved a decrease in the water LEAC, which will bring the average consumer’s bill down by $2.26.
V.I. Water and Power Authority officials recently submitted a petition to the PSC for higher rates, which would have helped them pay off $25 million in deferred fuel costs within nine months.
But a report submitted by Georgetown Consulting Group — the PSC’s advisors on WAPA matters — recommended lower rates that would spread the cost out over 12 months. WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge Jr. said he was "comfortable" with the suggestion.
Based on the vote, the electric LEAC will rise from $0.236936 per kilowatt hour to $0.238997 per kilowatt hour, while the water LEAC will drop from $9.08 per thousand gallons to $8.14 per thousand gallons.
Hodge said, however, that the authority might have to amend the figures if some of its generating units — particularly Unit No. 18 on St. Thomas, which is having some mechanical problems — don’t come back online soon.
The state of WAPA’s equipment has long been a frustration for the authority, whose officials have said that money earmarked for repairs continue to be put toward fuel costs. So when asked Friday whether the recent increase in base rates has had any effect on WAPA’s cash flow, Hodge said that the money is starting to trickle in, but won’t make that much of a difference until WAPA is able to do something different.
At this point, if an older generation unit has to be taken off-line, there’s really nothing available to put in its place, which decreases the system’s efficiency and burns up more fuel, he explained, adding the extra cash would help more if the system had been properly maintained all along.
"It’s like smoking cigarettes for 30 years, and getting cancer, then going to the doctor and saying fix me in two months — it’s just not possible," Hodge said.
Meanwhile, fuel prices are hovering around $80 per barrel, and are expected to climb even more, officials on both sides said, lamenting that "special interest" politics had pretty much killed the possibility of finding an immediate solution — in this case, the waste to energy projects proposed by Denver-based Alpine Energy Group — to the energy problems.
PSC members present during Friday’s meeting were Joseph Boschulte, Donald "Ducks" Cole, Verne C. David and Sirri Hamad, who chimed in over the phone from St. Croix.
Members M. Thomas Jackson and Elsie V. Thomas-Trotman were absent.
