By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value's president yesterday revealed the supermarket group has suffered "a big blow" after its overall light bill increased by 29.3 percent month-on-month and costs at some locations doubled.

Debra Symonette pledged to Tribune Business that the 13-store chain will not increase consumer prices despite sustaining a $74,000 rise in energy costs following the unexpected and unwelcome increase in Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) bills that is hitting the private sector as well as residential consumers.

While Super Value's business-wide solar power roll-out has enabled it to contain the impact, she added that such sudden and significant cost hikes worsen the effects of government-imposed price controls that restrict the margins food stores earn and result in some produce being sold at a loss.

"We went over the bills yesterday actually, and we are experiencing a significant increase," Ms Symonette told this newspaper. "When we calculated, we had an increase of 29 percent overall. Certain stores were up.

"Our warehouse was up like 165 percent, a certain portion of it - there ate two sections to it. Our office went up significantly, 92.7 percent, but the average overall increase was 29.3 percent. In terms of dollars we're paying $74,000 more. Just think: We have solar at all of the locations now, as well as the warehouse and the office. Imagine the people who don't have solar."

High electricity costs and unreliable supply have held back economic and business growth, and Bahamian national development, for decades. The Davis administration has initiated a series of reforms designed to overhaul BPL and the energy sector, both on the generation and transmission and distribution sides, but all these elements and their full impact will take some time to be felt.

Speaking to the latest BPL bill increase, Ms Symonette said: "That's going to increase our expenses, so that's going to cut into our profits. Right now, we're not considering any price increases. We're holding on with hope that they go back down on the rates like they say, and we see a decrease soon.

"Considering that we have refrigeration and air conditioning in all the stores, that's really expensive to keep them running. It's really a significant blow to us, and then we were also looking at the fact they want to have price controls, and we can only add 10 percent on eggs which we have to keep refrigerated with electricity."

The Super Value president, noting that the sudden and extensive light bill increases are "all around" impacting both households and businesses, said of the promised BPL and energy price improvements: "We 're still looking for that. I don't know how long it's going to take but we hope it will not be too long.

"We were really enjoying a significant benefit from it. I know we had seen a significant decrease in our bills. Suddenly this came along. This was like a significant blow to us because we thought we were going to enjoy that decrease for a while. Of course, over the summer we use more electricity. That, coupled with the [BPL] price increase, is going to hit us hard.

"Then, you know, they have it fixed that the more you use the more you pay," Ms Symonette added. "It's set up in kilowatt hours. You use up to a certain kilowatt hour at a certain price and, as you use more, the price increases. You cannot escape. Let's just hope they're going to see a change soon back down to what we could afford in the near future."

A public outcry erupted last week after BPL residential/household bills suddenly jumped by between 38.6 percent to almost tripling via a 199 percent increase month-over-month for July. Various reasons were cited, including the impact of the Israel-Iran conflict on global oil prices; increased summer demand and AC use; and BPL relying on more expensive diesel fuel.

BPL said its fuel costs had risen from around 16 cents and 20 cents per kilowatt hour (KWh), for the portions of customer bills below and above 800 KWh respectively, to 18.996 cents and 22.196 cents in June. But research by Tribune Business revealed that global oil prices, as measured by the Brent crude index, had at that time declined by 20.52 percent year-to-date to stand at $67.678 per barrel.

Ms Symonette's disclosures show that Bahamian businesses are not immune from the fall-out. Dionisio D'Aguilar, Superwash's proprietor, earlier this week revealed that his company is now paying an all-in BPL rate 45.8 percent higher than in October 2022 when the utility's hedge ended to be overtaken by its so-called 'glide path' strategy for recouping under-recovered fuel costs.

Analysing the historical data, he asserted that BPL's all-in per kilowatt hour (KWh) prices have "progressively gotten worse" over the past 18 months, having risen from 32 cents and 31 cents per KWh at year-end 2023 and early 2024, respectively, to the present 35 cents per KWh.

Mark A Turnquest, founder of the 242 Small Business Association and Resource Centre, and a well-known consultant to the sector, told Tribune Business yesterday that while his members and clients have generally seen an increase in their electricity bills for July none are panicking just yet. He explained that they will react to three-month, not one-month, trends and year-on-year comparisons with 2024.

"My clients don't complain but they indicated there were some hikes," he said. "They haven't yet had a chance to evaluate it because it's one month. My clients and members look at three months and summer last year. They don't run a business in one month.

"June is June. They did not complain in May. If they see June gone up, July gone up, August gone up, they compare their energy records based on how much A/C and things like that were used from the previous year. They don't act emotionally.

"What happens is that they know June, July and August are the three hottest months. When they see June, July and August have gone up compared to last year, then they will call me. Home owners look at one month, simple, but they are not like homeowners. They look at three months and compare them to last year."

To ease the pressure on residential consumers only pre-election, the Government introduced the Summer Energy Rebate. This will lower BPL's fuel charge by 1.1 cents per kilowatt hour (KWh) for both portions of the bill - under and over 800 KWh.

The fuel charge below 800 KWh will be lowered from the 18.5 cents that appeared in Bahamians' July bills to 17.4 cents, representing a 6 percent discount, while for over 800 KWh it is being lowered from 22.5 cents to 21.4 cents.

Tribune Business, which has also seen its own bill double, calculated that the 1.1 cent per KWh reduction on the portion of its fuel charge above 800 KWh would have saved around $36.70 on its July bill, while the savings on the portion below 800 kilowatts would have been $8.70. This translates into just a $45.40 collective saving.

The Government's latest quarterly debt report, covering the three months to end-March 2025, shows it has yet to repay much of the loan it received from the Government - thought to be around $110m - to help cover the arrears owed to Shell under the former 'glide path' initiative. Some $170.3m was shown to be owing as at end-March 2025.