By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Small businesses saw “minimal” decrease in electricity bills last month, according to a local consultant.

Mark A Turnquest, president of the 242 Small Business Association and Resource Centre, as well as a consultant to many companies, told Tribune Business that electricity bills for his members saw a “marginal” decrease in the electricity bills for September.

Mr Turnquest said the majority of the small businesses he works with had a ten percent decrease in their electricity bills last month and once the bills for October are issued the association will conduct a four-month comparison to last year.

“The majority said they had a ten percent reduction, but it’s minimal in scale and it’s not that noticeable,” said Mr Turnquest.

“It’s minimum, very minimum. We are now waiting for the October bill to come out so we can see the four months, July, August, September, October and compare the rates year over year from last year.

Mr Turnquest shared that his electricity bill decreased by 15 percent last month and members have been undertaking energy conservation measures for the past three years to combat their high electricity rates.

“A lot of our members really did a lot of conservative measures, in reference to LED lights, eco-friendly air condition and other machinery.

“Our members are conserving and even putting in preventative measures. A lot of our members also bought generators because we saw the problems BPL was facing long time ago. We’ve been doing our work to maintain a good status quo. They saw some decrease recently, but its marginal and once we compare the numbers with last year’s we’ll be able to see if it is really being felt.”

Minister of Energy and Transport, JoBeth Coleby-Davis said at the Office of the Prime Minister’s Weekly press briefing last week the cost of electricity was reduced over the past three months due to the new Equity Rate Adjustment (ERA).

She explained the ERA was designed to make bills more affordable and yielded a reduction in the base tariff rate for residential clients and the adjustment created a “more equitable balance” to the tariff structure.

Mrs Coleby-Davis said over 81,000 residential customers saw a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their monthly bills for September.

“The adjustment creates a more equitable balance to the current tariff structure and encourages energy conservation,” said Mrs Coleby- Davis.

“All residential consumers with low and moderate electricity usage will benefit as the base rate tariff for the first zero, to 200 kilowatt hours will be reduced to zero. In July, over 79,000 residential customers saw a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their monthly bill under the ERA compared to pre ERA tariff. In August, over 78,000 residential customers saw a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their monthly bill under ERA compared to pre ERA tariff. In September, over 81,000 residential customers saw a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their monthly bill under the ERA compared to pre ERA tariff.”

She said the ERA also caused a reduction in the bills of temporary supply consumers with over 2,180 seeing a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their bills for September.

“To spur economic growth and, by extension, support home ownership and construction, the ERA also saw the base tariff being reduced for temporary supply customers,” said Mrs Coleby-Davis.

“In July, over 2,100 temporary supply customers saw a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their monthly bill under the ERA compared to pre ERA tariff. In August, over 2,140 temporary supply customers saw a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their monthly bill under the ERA compared to pre ERA tariff. In September, over 2,180 temporary supply customers saw a five percent to 50 percent reduction in their monthly bill under the ERA compared to pre-ERA tariff.”

Mrs Coleby-Davis said large commercial consumers saw an increase in their bills due to the ERA but projected that their costs will decrease over time due to the efficiency upgrades at BPL.

“We understand that large commercial customers would have seen an increase in their bills due to the base tariff of that segment of customers being adjusted,” said Mrs Coleby-Davis.

“However, it is our projection that the cost of energy should fall over time as a result of the efficiency upgrades at BPL, which include the installation of a new HFO boiler equipment here to save over $35m per year in fuel costs, and the installation of two new LNG burning units, which will save over $29m per year in fuel costs.”

She said the decrease in electricity bills will be a “gradual process” as the utility must implement energy efficient machinery and BPL will schedule and design which engines will be “first out the gate” by their efficiency.

“Our present generators are very old. They have outlived their actual lifespan, and so they are working extremely, extremely hard to produce the energy that we are presently demanding,” said Mrs Coleby- Davis.

“While they are still providing that service for BPL, they are working overtime, and they’re probably using more fuel. And so all of what we are trying to do is put efficiencies in place and improvements. You will see deductions gradually, because we’re going to be now able to put a more efficient engine first out the gate as opposed to the ones that we are heavily dependent on.”