Is your June power bill higher than you thought it would be?

 

If you’re a Guamanian wondering why your June power bill is so high, when fuel rates reportedly only went up on July 1, there’s a reason; and you probably won’t like it.

On June 16, the Public Utilities Commission approved a rate hike to the secondary Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause. The LEAC is what the Guam Power Authority charges to mitigate the cost of the fuel it takes to run the power plants. The PUC ordered the increased LEAC rate to $0.251638 per kilowatt hour “shall be effective for meters read on or after July 1, 2022.”

Not every household and business power billing is read on the same day. The rates for residential customers is the same. The rates for commercial customers is the same. The billing period is the same, too: about 30 days. But, when the meter is read, and from what dates to what dates that meter reading covers… that’s where the difference is.

Let’s say GPA read your meter on June 30, 2022, the day before the rate hike took effect. Let’s assume the reading was for your home power consumption from June 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022, and that you consumed 2,000 kWh of electricity. Under the old rate of $0.209552, your secondary LEAC charge (the largest portion of your power bill) would be $419.10 if you consumed 2,000 kWh of electricity and your meter was read before July 1, 2022.

However, if you were unlucky enough to have your meter read any time on or after July 1, 2022, the entire formula changes. Let’s say your meter was read on July 3, 2022, and your billing period included consumption from June 4, 2022 to July 3, 2022, the new rate doesn’t just apply from July 1 consumption forward. It will apply to your entire bill.

Let’s assume the same factors; that a meter read on July 3 showed consumption of 2,000 kWh. Using the new rate of $0.251638 per kWh, your secondary LEAC charge would be $503.27.

That’s an $84 difference, and the only factor that changed was when GPA read your meter.

Hope that clears things up.

p.s. Another rate increase will happen, according to the PUC, for meters read on or after September 1, 2022.

Author’s note: I had to edit this story from an earlier version because I miscalculated the consumption by rate product.