THE Commonwealth Utilities Corp. does not earn revenue from the fuel adjustment charge included in its customers’ power bills.
CUC Executive Director Gary Camacho had to explain this to members of the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications who said they are being bombarded with calls from their constituents complaining about the increase in the fuel charge.
The committee chairman, Rep. Richard Lizama, told Camacho that some of his constituents believe they were “randomly chosen” to pay a higher power rate.
Lizama said he himself had received a $900 power bill.
“Can you please explain how that happened?” he asked Camacho.
For her part, Rep. Corina Magofna, a former CUC financial officer, said “there is a perception” among rate payers that when they are billed “too high” for fuel, CUC is overcharging them in order to raise its revenue.
“A lot of our constituents have been calling and requiring about it, and I would like them to hear it from you,” she told Camacho.
Camacho said the fuel adjustment charge is the cost of fuel used in producing electricity, and does not provide CUC with additional revenue, he added.
Camacho said “everybody has to deal with [the rising cost of fuel], and it also affects retail, wholesale, airfare — it affects everything.”
He said the fuel adjustment charge is not imposed “randomly,” but “across the board — it is for everybody to include myself and every CUC employee. It is not random; it is not specific to any individual. It is consistent as a rate structure, across the board,” Camacho reiterated.
Camacho also reminded lawmakers that it was the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission that provided CUC with the methodology in determining the fuel adjustment charge.
He said, “We follow only what has been required of us.” Based on the methodology, he added, any 4.5% increase or decrease in fuel price would require a similar increase or decrease in the fuel adjustment rate.
He said fuel price increases should encourage “significant conservation” on the part of rate payers.
“We…try to…act…based on what we can control as consumers,” Camacho said.
Also present in the committee meeting were the committee vice chairman, Rep. Donald Manglona, and members, Reps. Vicente Camacho, Edwin Propst and Tina Sablan.
Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Executive Director Gary Camacho speaks during a meeting with the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications on Tuesday in the House chamber.
