Growing customers boost CUC coffers
CUC generator
(CNS) UPDATED: A 4% increase in sales along with lower costs and finance charges resulted in a boost in earnings for Grand Cayman’s monopoly power provider during the first quarter of this year. In the first report of 2019 CUC recorded net earnings of $4.5 million, an increase of $1.8 million on the same period last year. Domestic economic growth led to a 2% increase in the number of CUC customers, which now stands at 29,945, who also increased their power consumption over the first three months of the year.
“The Company is off to a good start in 2019 with earnings growth, improvement in reliability of service to customers, progress on significant capital projects and an increase in the amount of renewable energy on the grid when compared to the same period last year,” said CUC President and CEO Richard Hew in a release with the quarterly report.
“The acceptance of CUC’s Integrated Resource Plan by the Cayman Islands Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) during the period also bodes well for further integration of renewable energy.
“I am also very pleased that during First Quarter 2019 there were no lost-time injuries recorded. The safety of our employees, and that of the public, remains top priority and the Company continues to improve its work processes and increase employee training, safety management and leadership, to drive lost-time incidents to zero,” he added.
CUC said that a major focus for the company during Q1 2019 has been on reliability of service to customers. According to the release, customers had an uninterrupted power supply for 99.98% of the time during the first quarter, which CUC said was an improvement in average customer reliability of 33% when compared to 2018.
However, on Thursday officials confirmed that almost half of CUC’s customers lost power late on Wednesday night. Apologising for the outage which affected people in West Bay, George Town, Prospect and Savannah they confirmed that the outage lasted for just under an hour with power going out at around 11:35 pm but was restored by 12:30 am. “Initial investigations point to mechanical equipment failure of the generating facilities. Crews responded immediately and started restoration in a safe and efficient manner,” the company stated in a short release.
Meanwhile, CUC was also promoting in its latest financial report that renewable energy on its grid grew during the first quarter of 2019 as a result of solar panel installation by more CORE customers and the solar farm in Bodden Town. The kWh from renewables grew to 4.3 million compared to 3.5 million in the first few months last year.
But this still only represents 2.8% of the total energy on CUC’s grid and the company has a target of generating 25% of the power from renewables within the next six years.
CUC also secured bragging rights as a boss after it was recognised last month as a Top Employer in the Cayman Islands by the CI Society of Human Resources Professionals.
For you stupid people, buy shares in C U C and reap some of the profits. U can put a little extra money on your bill each month to buy shares.
Yeahhh congrats CUC, so happy for you (insert eye roll here)… so glad we’re able to make you so much money year after year after year! Also, thanks for the power outage this week, that was super sweet- I love trying to sleep with no air circulating! smh
I thought robberies were down?
HA, you win comments this week.
5.56pm not daylight.
With the new pending legislation perhaps we will discover the names of the politicians ministers and senior civil servants who are CUC shareholders and reaping the profits generated by the rate increases they authorized.
Why don’t u buy shares in C U C ? U will gladly accept them if social services gave them to u. But u won’t save and buy them for yourself.
Way to avoid addressing the obvious conflict the government has as shareholder and elected representive of the customers.
Since CUC continues to post record profits, perhaps its time for the ICTA to STOP approving rate increases? Its starting to look more and more and more like big business is more important to our government than the people it swears to serve.
C U C profits is between 11 to 13 % ( if i am wrong please correct me) it would be real good if that was all the profit that the stories/ shops was allowed to make.The gas would be about $3 per gal..
Actually more like 7-8%
This is certainly wonderful news for CUC shareholders but I see no good news here for CUC customers.
At the recent energy transitions conference held at the Kempton we were told that the cheapest KWH was the one you don’t use. I applaud CUC’s move away from burning diesel to generate power but I think they could step up their game to directly help their customers save KWH!
Sorry I missed the recent energy fair, but I think there are even more opportunities to partner with those in our communities for whom paying the CUC bill is a hardship.
For example, how about using a portion of these profits to partner with a couple of non-profits here to help them make changes to reduce their electricity use thereby freeing up their resources to do what they do so well to help our community? As well, what about doing a few demonstration projects with folks like poor seniors to show how much they can save by reducing their consumption of electricity without leaving them sweltering in the heat or sitting in the dark?
Come on CUC, show us your Cayman Kind!
How about CIG create a law that our senior citizens get discounts on everything! Problem solved..
anyone who gives this comment a thumbs down is clearly a part of the CUC profit sharing group!
Guess what genius, everyone can be part of the “CUC profit sharing group”. This is what publicly listed companies are for.