Tensions Escalate as PSC Delays Vote on WAPA Rate Increase
As promised by St. Thomas community organizers, dozens of angry WAPA customers showed up Wednesday morning outside of Suite 4, Barbel Plaza, to chant down the utility’s attempt to increase electricity rates on thousands of homeowners and businesses.
Inside of the first-floor boardroom, five frustrated utility regulators took testimony and then put the brakes to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority’s scheme to hike electric bills, which are already is the highest in the country.
The Virgin Islands Public Service Commission (PSC) voted 5-0 to delay action on WAPA’s rate-hike petition until October 3rd at the commission’s next scheduled meeting. Commissioners Kent Bernier, Johann Clendenin, David Hughes, Andrew Rutnick and Chairman Raymond Williams voted in favor of delaying action. All agreeing that additional information is warranted and PSC consultants need more time to study the request.
WAPA sought commission approval for an immediate 3 cents per-kilowatt-hour increase in the base utility rate combined with an immediate “offsetting” decrease of 3 cents per-kilowatt-hour in the fuel surcharge, a portion of electricity bills commonly known as LEAC (the always rising Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause charge).
Read more: https://viconsortium.com/breaking-news/tensions-escalate-as-psc-delays-vote-on-wapa-rate-increase/
