Guyanese to pay less for electricity
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – Guyanese will be paying less for electricity as of April 1 due to the fall in world oil prices.
electricity.
On Thursday the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Company announced a 20 per cent reduction in net rates for the supply of electricity across all Tariff categories.
The utility company said the reduction would be applied as a five per cent reduction on the basic rate of both fixed charge and energy charge, and a further 15 per cent fuel rebate on the energy charge.
“Given that the company had previously applied an interim 10 per cent fuel rebate on the energy charge in March 2015, the overall effect would see an additional 10 per cent reduction on electricity bills,” GPL added.
“The company took into account the reduction in world market prices for fuel over the past year, which has favourably impacted its overall costs and wishes to pass on the benefits of these reductions to its Customers,” the company noted.
The electricity supplier said it wanted to reduce the tariffs even further, but is constrained by its current level of overheads and more so by the technical and commercial losses, which in 2015 amounted to 29.2 per cent of dispatched power.
“These losses include losses in transmission and distribution due to aged infrastructure, as well as theft of electricity, meter tampering and other non technical losses.”
The company also used the opportunity to appeal to consumers to report electricity theft.
“The company’s significant losses due to electricity theft, tampering of meters, meter by-passes and other forms of dishonesty result in higher operating costs and GPL is requesting the help of the public in reporting and addressing these matters.”
The company also acknowledged reports of some level of public dissatisfaction with its services and is committed to actively addressing all issues including faster response times to customer queries, more efficient delivery of services, ensuring the integrity of its officers both internal and contracted, delivery of timely billing and information, amongst others.
