By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
THE Commonwealth Utilities Corp. announced Wednesday that the Fuel Adjustment Charge will increase from $0.19706 per kilowatt-hour to $0.22075 per kWh, effective March 16, 2026, citing rising global fuel prices.
“This adjustment follows the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission order lifting the FAC tariff freeze, which took effect on March 15, 2026, allowing CUC to adjust the rate to reflect changes in fuel costs,” CUC said. “The FAC had been previously frozen beginning March 6, 2025, to allow CUC time to reconcile past fuel costs.”
The FAC is one of two components of CUC’s electric charge and appears on customers’ monthly bills. It covers fuel and fuel-related purchases. The second component, the base rate, has not increased since April 2014 and funds personnel, operations, projects, debt service, and other non-fuel expenses.
During a CUC board meeting on March 12, Chief Financial Officer Betty Terlaje said the utility has been under-recovering the cost of fuel used to generate electricity. Her comments came after Board Chairman Allen Perez asked how rising global fuel prices were affecting the utility’s budget while the FAC remained frozen under the CPUC’s March 2025 stabilization order, which held the rate at the January 2025 level of $0.21119 per kWh.
From June 1, 2025, to March 15, 2026, the FAC remained at $0.19706 per kWh.
Terlaje said the current FAC is significantly below what is needed to cover actual fuel costs.
“Based on the methodology… we should be at 22 cents for this month, a little over 22 cents,” she said, adding that CUC has been underbilling customers for several months and absorbing the shortfall through its operations. “That has been accumulating. If we continue like this, it will continue to pull from operations to be able to keep up with our fuel payments.”
According to CUC consultant Robert Young of Economists.com, current market conditions could push fuel costs even higher if global prices remain elevated.
Fuel prices across the CNMI surged following the recent conflict in the Middle East and tightening fuel supplies in Asia. Saipan motorists saw gasoline and diesel prices jump to $6.36 a gallon for regular, $6.81 for premium, and $8.28 for diesel. Mobil Oil Marianas raised its prices first, followed by Shell Marianas.
On Tinian, gasoline now costs $8.49 per gallon and diesel $9.98. Rota residents are paying $6.99 for gasoline and $9.42 for diesel.
Residents also expect increases in groceries and other imported goods as fuel costs continue to rise.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
