Fuel cost comes down as base rate goes up
(CNS): Customers can expect to see a decline in fuel cost charges when they get their bills for June and July, CUC has said. But that could be countered by another increase in the base rate, which CUC said was verified and accepted by OfReg to roll out in June’s bills. As bills appear to be skyrocketing for everyone, the fuel rate will decrease by 7% in June on May’s rate and in July by another 6%.
However, customers are also seeing a 3.7% base rate hike kicking in this month, which follows an increase earlier this year as CUC sought to get back the deferred base rate increase from last year, cutting into the fuel factor savings. Customers will also see a slight increase in the Licence and Regulatory Charge per kilowatt hour from $0.005 to $0.0155.
Following some very high bills in May due to the hot weather, which persisted throughout June and into July, with Cayman experiencing one of the hottest summers on record, CUC said that overall, June bills have decreased by 2.2% and they are expected to fall by another 3.6% in July.
Nevertheless, CUC urged customers to be careful with fuel consumption. “Summer months, due to the heat index and the additional pressure placed on air conditioning loads, can cause an increase in electricity consumption,” CUC said.
Fuel rates are changed each month in line with what CUC said was the actual costs incurred and can be found on CUC’s website. The base rate is increased in line with a formula as per condition 25 of CUC’s Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Licence. It is based on data used to determine a relevant inflation factor or a price which is based on 60% of the change in the Cayman Islands Consumer Price Index and 40% of the change in the USA. The base rate increase does not impact the fuel cost charge that is reflected on customers’ bills.
This latest base rate adjustment of 3.7% was verified by OfReg to begin on 1 June, CUC said. CNS contacted OfReg about this increase, and officials confirmed that it had verified the press release prior to release to ensure its accuracy.
“OfReg’s role in the annual base rate adjustment is to verify and confirm the calculations submitted by CUC against its audited financials, the 10-year US treasury yield and the Cayman and US consumer price index (CPI) figures,” said Louis Boucher, the deputy executive director for Energy and Utilities.
He added that the 3.7% increase represents about a $5 increase for the average residential customer who consumes 1,100 kWh per month. Since the base rate only represents one-third of the typical electricity bill, with fuel representing nearly all the rest, the net increase in consumers’ overall bills from the base rate adjustment represents a 1.3% increase.
For more information about the terms of CUC’s T&D Licence or the RCAM and to view the current rate schedule, visit www.cuc-cayman.com or www.ofreg.ky.
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Minuster Seymour said that raising the minimum wage will not benefit Caymanaians beaause they wont be able to hire nannies.
There will be no relief from the outrageous CUC prices, no meaningful minimum wage increases, but there will be nonstop buffoonery!
Hey Burger King, did your base rate go up too? I don’t want an F’ing Medium when I order a meal (especially when I specify small). I drink water, so I pay $2 more for 2 more fries. You are dumped. Wendy’s, lets hook up 😉
Pleeeze do not nationalize the grid. You have reliable electricity for no more than elsewhere in the Caribbean. Do you really want electricity to depend on a new half-assed government operation?
Just a reminder that CUC does NOT have a monopoly of power production only on distribution. Also they do NOT have a guaranteed profit.
I am not a CUC employee but I do appreciate their service and hope that one day the the costs will reduce.
Maybe not but competitive and fair customer rates will never be realised while CUC owns the grid.
Try checking electricity prices and outage rates on other Caribbean islands and you’ll find we are so much better off here
So we are the least ripped off? Cool.
I am curious, if they are not a monopoly where else can we purchase power?
you can produce your own
Generation is not a monopoly. We’re buying power through CUC, but for electricity generated by CUC, the solar farm owned by Richard Branson’s company, and anyone else that currently sells electricity to the grid.
catching…right into elite’s pocket! lol
How can they tell so many lies and go unpunished? Because obviously no one’s bill went down.
CUC – Proving Sir Isaac Newton wrong since 1966.
It looks like majority don’t trust the CUC meter reading.
Marl Road says CUC is great…I guess that’s the message the Premier told her to spin today
CUC is one of CMR’s paying advertisers. And CMR doesn’t adhere to core journalism tenets, so what do you expect?
Chief propamdist on the ball!
Catron says anyone who is paying her is great.
Having lived on a few other islands where brown and blackouts lasting days are very common I also think CUC is actually really good. Cost isn’t even all that bad compared to lots of islands it’s cheap and similar price to most of Europe. Really not sure what all the constant whining is about. Downvote away lol
And no doubt an announcement of record profits to follow. I am not generally a supporter of the nationalising of companies, but I think in this case of monopoly, the license should be revoked and for government to take over ownership and the same staff produce electricity at cost.
CUC Is just another business(like all the rest) and must make a profit to continue to provide services. CIG is not. They tax CUC all the ways they can and CUC passes on the tax to all users. This is the same for all business on the island. All the food and materials you buy is taxed at 20% or thereabouts and that plus delivery cost from America and everywhere else is also taxed by CIG. This is why Cayman islands are one of the most expensive places to live on this planet. CIG then takes its hundreds of millions in pure untaxed profit and spends it all on the great Caymanian welfare system which includes Cayman Airways, the Turtle farm, Civil service, All of Cayman Brack, etc, etc. This is why most of us who do not work or profit or is sponsored by CIG has to pay such a high price for living here.
its not the same at all. CUC is a private business that has a government secured monopoly and a government guarantied profit percentage.
***tax neutral*** they call the Cayman Islands…
Screw you and your insolence. Yes, the Sister Islands have some indigent. Much less per capita than Grand Cayman.
You talk as though you feel your privilege. I’m happy for you. Perhaps when you mature and have to face out-of-control healthcare costs, you will begin to understand.
It’s not like the rest because it is a monopoly with no competition.
If you include personal taxes as an expense it’s very far from the most expensive place. In most of the world you pay 1/4 to 1/2 your income in direct taxation before you even get to start spending it on goods and services that are VA taxed at rates similar to our duty rates!
Nationalise the grid instead and level the playing field, we need competition especially renewable energy providers.
We do have competition on the production of energy. Have had it for quite a number of years. Hence the solar farm in BT. They sell their power to CUC who sells it to us. Just like a local farmer sells their produce to supermarkets who sell it to us.
This is only the illusion of competition. CUC needs to be cut out of the equation and be relegated to being a licencee.
if government took over CUC today you can expect rolling blackouts tomorrow. Nepotism and bureaucracy would destroy that operation.
I wasn’t suggesting CIG take over CUC. Leave CUC to itself, CIG needs to own the grid and run it via a competent operator preferably from overseas. Reduce CUC to being licencee. Of course this will never happen since there are too many power brokers and politicians with a personal stake in CUC.
A licensee for what exactly? Generation only, by your suggestion.
If CIG owns the grid, they would need to invest in it and upgrade it. Guess what our government is utterly awful at doing? Capital investments on time, on budget, and without massive quality concerns. It is really specifically in the area you want CIG involved that it would be the most detrimental.
Hahaha, and you expect govt to do better?! Hahaha
8.24am That would be a disaster. Why doesn’t Govt reduce duty on Diesel like PPM did. This would help everyone and have an immddiate effect.
PACT government is allowing banks and CUC to kill us.
My rent is expected to go up CI$600 in 2024. CI$600 on a previous CI$2,400 or 25%. My insurance went up CI$130. And now CUC taking away our only little relief to pack their pockets again.
I want to know why they can be GUARANTEED A GOOD PROFITS but we suffer unending Cost of Living increases.
Agree on the Banks. Butterfield will stop cashing cheques for non-customers next month. How is it not illegal to issue a Chequebook to their customers and then not have to honour said cheques paid to others?
Man, I love how we have not only a government sanctioned private monopoly, but that same monopoly also has a government guarantied profit percentage.
talk about that free market,
Wayne loves the smell of diesel generated power in the morning.
But will stand at every buffet table possible talking about sustainability. I think someone needs to explain to him what it actually means.
Dat boat dont run on solar.
Fill er up!
One has to wonder what it’s all for.
Work hard to make a living and provide for your family, but the majority of your hard-earned money goes to CUC and rent or mortgage, with little left for savings or entertainment, clothing, food or a night out.
One auto breakdown or a family emergency is catastrophic to finances.
Either no one who can fix these things cares or they do not wish to, or a bit of both, because they are detached from the struggle of thousands of families.
the latter. They do not care or wish to care because it is not them or their family in the situation. Karma must take it’s place in Cayman’s government for some sort of solution.
OfReg is acrually OFF REG. With lterally no substantive consumer protections, they are one of, if not, the most useless authorities in the Cayman Islands.
Every reputable news and scientific organizations were sounding alarms that the summer would be brutally hot, yet Off Reg allowed a hike to cut into the fuel cost savings.
Thousands of comsumers are facing monumental bills now. CUC social media PR mouthpieces told us to turn thermostats to 78, which was as effective as Off Reg is.
No matter how much we all tried to conserve, our bills increased significantly.
Even if you turn everything but the refrigerator off for weeks at a time on holiday, you come back to the same bill.
Stories like these are heard daily and have been for years, but they fall on deaf ears.
And we can all be sure that they will get away with it again; shareholder dividends and such.
The real pirates of the caribbean are based on Sparky Drive.
Heatwave You are so right ! I listened to ttheir nonsense and my bill went up by $4.50 for the month. I was really disappointed. On top of that I just got my house insurance reminder with “full epistle” about how and why my payment is going up. Now they want another valuation because the one I did 2 years ago is no longer valid. A bunch of thieves!
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“Nevertheless, CUC urged customers to be careful with fuel consumption. ” So when it is ‘hottest summer on record so far” CUC’s bright idea is that consumers should reduce their power consumption….What a shame more of our power isn’t from renewables! And who has suppressed the quanitity and availability of CORE energy? CUC would be who….
It is stated in the 2nd paragraph, last sentence of the article above that customers will also see a slight increase in the Licence and Regulatory Charge per kilowatt hour from $0.005 to $0.0155.
CNS, you may consider this a “slight increase” however it is in effect more than tripling OfReg’s income which is a straight pass through on our bills thus paid by all of us who are CUC’s customers.
A quick review of CUC’s 2022 Annual Report will show you what that annual income to OfReg was before now being tripled by OfReg itself.
Are we getting value for money out of OfReg so much so that we are happy to increase their income threefold?
Fleet upgrade much needed.
That new Tahoe ain’t cheap at $80k, the existing ones are what, 3 years old already?
I got a proper spanking. More than $200
BS, I turned off my upstairs AC as I wasn’t around all month. Still the same $.
Turn off downstairs, will slow the meter down , dem.
BS, I set my thermostat to 83 degrees for all of June as I was off island and my bill went from around $200 to $40 for my 2 bedroom townhouse. Insulation and a well maintained system are wonderful things.
The CUC employee has entered the chat.
Aaah, the CUC employee/Troll is back again….
Funny you should say that….I was away for the month of May and did the same thing, 83 on the thermostat. My bill went up $200.00 that month.
My house has ICF construction plus insulating foam in roof attic.
Then you have serious issues. BTW you do understand that what you pay in May is actually for April usage.
Look like Peter was Robbed to Pay Paul to donate to Pilot to raaaaatid. Just remember when ya turn off all the lights…… and the AC…… the only thing left to switch off is the main breaker….. if that dont work just chop the pole down and set it on fire. But you may still be charged a renewable energy fee.
Liar, liar your pants on fire!
This happens all the time and yet, our “consumer protection” agency snoozes.
One has to wonder who are investors in CUC and who has family or friends employed there.
Away for a month, AC off completely, only a fridge on. My bill actually went up….
What about your water heater?
Was your bowl of porridge disturbed?