CCU approves base rate increase

by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The Consolidated Commission on Utilities met Tuesday night and along with passing the Guam Power Authority's smart meter opt-out policy, they also approved a base rate increase. GPA's request for a base rate increase was approved, but not as much as expected.

CCU chairman Simon Sanchez explained, saying, "But the Commission being very well aware and sensitive to how difficult it is for people, we reduced the request." GPA had originally requested a 3.4% rate increase but with only two-thirds of their request justified, the CCU reduced it to 2.2%. "And we just asked them to make it work that instead of $17 million, they could work with $11 million, so we cut $6 million off their request, that's $6 million that will remain with rate payers, they won't be billed, they'll keep that money."

Essentially what that means is that instead of a $14 increase, it will now be about a $9 a month increase in the typical residential customer's power bill. Sanchez says base rates are sporadic but are not raised, often noting that in the last decade or so, power bills have gone up about $20 strictly as a result of base rate adjustments. "Everyone is well aware how difficult it is with the power bills right now and even though 90% of the problem is oil, even with the base rates which is 10% of the problem, we're sensitive to that," he said.

Sanchez says what is encouraging however is that this may be the last rate increase for the next three to four years.

Meanwhile, the CCU also approved GPA's smart meter opt-out policy which would require a $235 one-time fee for those who opt out, along with a $20 monthly fee. "We're going to try it for 12 months and see if the costs justify the fees."

One way or another, Sanchez says all GPA customers will have a new meter. "You're either going to have a smart meter or a dumb meter, but they're going to be the same basic meters - it's just whether they emit a radio frequency in order to read the bill that month," he said.

So instead of reading the meter remotely, those meters without a radio frequency, one of the biggest concerns raised to those objecting, will now have to be read manually. Both actions taken by the CCU meanwhile are still subject to final approval by the Public Utilities Commission with the base rate adjustment set for the beginning of the new fiscal year which is October 1.