Enough is enough!

Last night was the last straw for me—enough is enough! My family and I have been trying to conserve power ever since the first power hike on July 22, 2006. We have been reading the meter twice a day so that we know how much we are using. We’ve turned off all air-cons except for the one in the kids’ room at night and even went as far as unplugging appliances. My wife and I sleep with the fan, which was okay during the winter months because of the cooler air but now as the nights get hotter, it is starting to get uncomfortable. Last night, we put the kids to bed and was lying down to sleep when all of sudden, blackout. Here we go again, another rolling blackout. So for the next two and a half hours we were sweating and tossing and turning because it is sooooo hot. Our kids have school the next day and we have work. How will the kids get enough rest so that they can be rested and be able to learn in school? Our kids cannot learn if they are sleepy in class. So I told myself that I would write a letter to the editor to express my thoughts. So here it is.

With the recent new power hike by CUC management, I am curious to ask where they came up with these rates. Are they trying to make up for what they said they lost from the previous power rates or is this the actual cost of producing power now? If it is the actual cost, where are their justifications? CUC management says that the cost of oil is the reason for this rate but are they telling us the truth? If the cost of oil is the reason for these new rates then show us the figures. Back when the barrel of oil was little over $100 and before the Legislature made it $0.17 per kWh, the power rate was set. Now the barrel of oil is over $123, does the rate change reflect that increase or is the current rate more that what it should be? After all the excuses CUC management have given its customers over the past years, it’s hard to believe them. Remember when the rates were first implemented, they said that it was the oil price then when the oil price went down, they said that the reason for the delay in reducing the rates was because it’s the government and we need to understand that the government is slow to react sometimes but they are very fast to react and raise the rates.

Another thing, when the rates were first raised, they did it during the billing cycle and overcharged customers because they prorated your usage by taking the total amount used in that billing cycle and dividing it by the number of days in the billing cycle then multiplying by the number of days for the old rate and number of days for the new rate and add the two together and that was your total bill. The flaw in this system was that if you as a customer were using a lot during the time when the rates were lower and then conserved when the rates went up, you as the customer would lose. For example, let’s say that you used 400 kWh during the lower rate and used 200 kWh during the higher rate. That gives you a total of 600 kWh for the month. For the sake of argument, let’s say that the billing cycle is 30 days and the lower cost was $0.20 per kWh and the higher cost was $0.30 per kWh. If you calculate it the CUC management’s way, you pay $60 (600 kWh divided by 30 days equal 20 kWh per day times $0.20 per kWh equals 4 kWh per day times 15 days equals $60) for the lower rate and $90 (600 kWh divided by 30 days equals 20 kWh per day times $0.30 per kWh equals 6 kWh per day times 15 days equals $90) for the higher rate. Your total monthly bill would be $150. But if you actually used 400 kWh for the lower rate and 200 kWh for the higher rate then your bill should be $80 (400 kWh times $0.20 equals $80) for the lower rate and $60 (200 kWh times $0.30 equals $60) for the higher rate and your total monthly bill should be $140. That means that CUC management overcharged you by $10.

For all those people who decided to conserve by turning off air-cons, water heaters, unplugging unused appliances and implementing other conservation ways, you ended up paying CUC management more than you actually used. They cheated you because they never went out to every meter and read it so that you will be charged for exactly what you used for the rate it was to be. Now, is CUC management going to use this same system in calculating our next bill? If so, go and read you meter today and conserve and dispute their calculation because I know that they didn’t read every single meter on the island when the new higher rates went into effect. Why the different rates for the different power usage? That’s like going to the gas station and they charge us $4.50 per gallon for putting 2 gallons of gas but they charge us $5 per gallon for putting 5 gallons of gas. Can CUC management justify that? Does it actually cost more to produce 500 kWh than 1,000 kWh? If so, prove it, not by telling us but by showing us. Give us the numbers, that shouldn’t be that difficult, right? Because CUC management must have had done some calculation before coming up with new rates or did they say, “Let’s take what we lost in the past months and calculate what we need to charge to make up the difference.” And don’t give us a bunch of baloney because we the customer are more intelligent than the CUC management think we are.

Lastly, this goes to the CUC executive director for his comments in the newspaper: “The new rates might come as a shock for residential customers, but the only solution to it for now is some modification to their lifestyle.” How much modifying do you want us to do? Turn off all lights and invite the thieves and burglars? Unplug all appliances, even our refrigerators and let our food spoil? Sleep outside and be attacked by the mosquitoes? Don’t have our kids use the computer to do their homework so their grades will suffer? Have our kids do their homework by candle light so their eyesight will get worse? Some of us are trying to conserve and a statement like that shows what you are thinking: Everyone must be wasting energy.