By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

AN upcoming tariff study at Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) may result in a base rate increase for consumers, though BPL’s chief executive officer Shevonn Cambridge said this does not guarantee higher customer bills.

“A full comprehensive tariff study as envisioned by our RFP is going to take six to 12 months,” Mr Cambridge said during a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister.

He said capital investments from a base rate increase would let BPL reduce fuel costs, a component of consumers’ bill.

“We envision the fuel costs going down sufficiently to offset the increase in the base rate as well as to provide you some discounting, so the net impact to the consumer is planned to be less,” he said.

“We need to right-size our tariff. The reality is that BPL hasn’t had a rate increase since 2010. And we are presently working to release an RFP for a tariff study that will help us to restructure our rates to allow BPL to meet its current financial obligations, as well as to ensure that our revenue is sufficient to meet the country’s future needs.”

Asked if customers would see an increase in electricity bills until capital investments impact costs, Mr Cambridge said not necessarily.

“It’s up to the regulator how they want to impact the price,” he told The Tribune in a separate interview. “You could bear the cost upfront now with the benefit coming later or you could do the modelling and say, this is the overall projected cost over the next five, then years and we are going to recover the forecasted sales over those years, so you could budget over that period to benefit earlier. The cost reduction that would come later on wouldn’t be as great because they’re giving some of that upfront.”

Mr Cambridge also revealed that BPL had seen consumption peaks this summer.

“Our current available generation in New Providence I just want to say exceeds 300 megawatts, which allows us to meet what is already shaping up to be our highest consumption peak on record. The temperatures, as we all know, over the course of the last couple of weeks have been record-breaking.”

He said BPL’s forecast initially indicated there would be a 265-megawatt peak this year, but so far in New Providence, there has already been a peak of 278 megawatts.

“Our peak month is actually August and September. So, we anticipate going well above 280 at this point,” he said.

He said Eleuthera and Exuma have also seen new records.

“We’re also bolstering our TND network in New Providence to handle the demand,” he said. “It’s not only generation but when you have this demand, lines and ability to give that power to places where people are using them is a key thing. And some of our circuits are already seeing serious loading concerns. And we’re making the necessary steps to reinforce those circuits, where possible and as quickly as possible. So, you may see a lot of activity going on some of the streets.”