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CUC aims to better explain LEAC charge
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. aims to better explain to customers the LEAC, or levelized energy adjustment clause, in their bills each month by renaming this as the “fuel adjustment clause.”
On top of this, they have put out pamphlets in English, Chamorro, and Carolinian to explain this rate. One pamphlet reads “Hafa LEAC?”
LEAC is one of two components of a customer’s power bill. LEAC is used for fuel purchases. The second rate component is the electric base rate, which is used to fund operations, projects, and debt repayment.
Georgetown Consulting Group called the pamphlets “an excellent first step” in a public hearing and workshop last Thursday.
At the hearing, CUC consultant Robert Young said these efforts stem from how this was a “technically-laden” industry and how English is not always the primary language in the CNMI.
He also said a “point of change” was when former governor Juan N. Babauta asked what was the LEAC charge he had to pay.
In order to do a better job of explaining its rates, CUC aims to change the LEAC charge to “fuel-adjustment clause.”
He said other utilities have used the word “fuel” in their charges, and clarified this was just a name change.
Georgetown consultant Larry Gawlik said there has not been “sufficient transparency” about what this rate is about.
Georgetown Consulting agrees that the rate name should “connotate what the charge is about.”
However, in a written report to the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission, the consulting group argued that LEAC name be kept because, among others, that energy costs would be included in future LEAC rates.
CUC counsel James Sirok said, though, that 85 to 90 percent of the charges in the LEAC were “fuel-related.”
He also said that Georgetown Consulting’s opinion regarding how much CUC customers understand the rate is “based on speculation.”
“We hear from customers on a daily basis. We have a factual basis,” he said.
