LUMA Energy requests and obtains a second extension to present rate adjustment

The consortium LUMA Energy requested and obtained a second extension from the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (NEPR) to deliver the rate adjustment factors that will come into effect on October 1.

In a brief resolution issued yesterday, Monday, when the deadline for the first extension expired, the NEPR accepted the company’s request, which proposed setting the delivery deadline for tomorrow, Wednesday.

“NEPR reminds LUMA that each extension of time granted to LUMA reduces the NEPR evaluation period. Such an evaluation period is essential for the NEPR to complete its analysis to assure consumers of prudent and reasonable factors that apply on October 1, 2023. Therefore, the NEPR will not consider additional extensions unless extreme and unavoidable circumstances are the reason. cause of said extension request”warned the regulatory body after authorizing the extension.

Last week, the NEPR had given way to a first extension, whose request the consortium attributed to problems in its customer service and billing systems, and to revisions of the data provided by Generate PRoperator in charge of fuel purchasing and power generation.

In its motion yesterday, LUMA Energy indicated that “the Genera Genera report was received on September 13, 2023. As a result of the situation with the CC&B (customer service and billing) system described in the Urgent Request However, billing reports must be re-modeled with certain specific scheduling criteria. Given the amount of billing data involved, the process of obtaining and verifying data in billing reports will take longer than anticipated.”

Currently, the residential rate amounts to 20.3 cents per kilowatt hour. In August, the company filed an “accelerated adjustment” motion that would have increased the rate by 4.1 cents for September, citing a $69.2 million gap in fuel and energy purchase expenses and revenues in July.

However, the NEPR denied the motion and ordered that the budget deficiency be addressed through quarterly reconciliation covering the period from October to December. By extending the reconciliation for three months, the monthly impact on consumers would be reduced compared to what it would have represented to recover the $69.2 million in a single month.