CUC says profits cut to wire

(CNS): As fuel factor surcharges reached the highest rate ever on customer’s bills this month Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) said to absorb anymore of the increased operating costs would undermine the viability of the firm.  “CUC has been absorbing increases in all other costs which have been rising significantly since 2002 as rates have been frozen,” said Richard Hew President and CEO.

“In addition we gave rate reductions in January of this year. To absorb further costs would seriously erode the financial viability of the company and its ability to meet its obligations to serve our customers reliably,” said Hew in the wake of published explanations for the very high fuel surcharges in September.

Last week CUC said that the fuel cost factor for September which reached an all time high of 27.28 cents per kilowatt-hour was based on the price of fuel in July when prices had soared but the firm said the rate would come down for October’s bill.

Encouraging customers to conserve energy because of the ever fluctuating price of fuel which dictates CUCs charges Hew said that he believed  that while fuel costs have recently been at all time highs there is still no proven technology that can replace diesel engines to provide reliable electricity at lower costs.

Until the recently re-negotiated contract with government CUC was not obligated to seek out alternative energy sources. Moreover, the firm’s previous licence effectively prevented the public from seeking their own alternative options such as solar panels as customers could not power share. AS a result Cayman still depends entirely on diesel to generate its electricity. Under the new agreement however, CUC must now find ways to generate power through sustainable means and is seeking partners to work with them on alternative projects.

“We are currently seeking parties interested in installing wind turbines, and will shortly be accepting customer owned renewable generation on the grid which will likely facilitate small scale wind and photovoltaics,” Hew said.