LUMA will present this Monday the proposal for the last tariff adjustment in 2023

Upon a request from LUMA Energyhe Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (NEPR) extended until this Monday the deadline to present the motion for a quarterly adjustment in the electricity rate, which is anticipated to result in an increase in the bill.

In a resolution issued on Wednesday, the NEPR accepted the motion that LUMA had presented the previous day to authorize an extension to the term that originally expired today, Friday. The rate adjustment approved by the NEPR will come into effect on October 1.

The motion that LUMA submitted on Tuesday alludes to two situations that would prevent it from meeting the original deadline to deliver its proposed adjustment. Firstly, the consortium noted that, although Generate PR complied with delivering the energy generation cost data on September 8, “several of those reports (…) have been subject to several reviews since then, including the most recent one, which was submitted to LUMA today (Tuesday). At this point, LUMA is waiting to receive the final Generation report”.

On the other hand, the transmission and distribution operator stated that, on unspecified dates, there were Confronted technical issues with customer service and billing systems, which delayed the preparation of the final report on invoice collection. That report, LUMA indicated, would be received last Wednesday.

“These circumstances and delays in receiving the data and reports necessary to produce the calculations for the quarterly reconciliation and the calculated factors impacted the schedule for the preparation of said calculations and reconciliation,” LUMA stated in the motion.

Currently, the residential rate amounts to 20.3 cents per kilowatt hour. In August, LUMA presented a motion for “accelerated adjustment” that would have increased the rate by 4.1 cents for September, alluding to a gap of $69.2 million in expenses and income from the purchase of fuel and energy in the month of July.

However, the NEPR denied the motion and ordered that the budget deficiency be addressed through quarterly reconciliation that covers 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.