Residential customers to pay more for electricity
...up by 12 to 52%
Camille Bethel
cbethel@trinidadexpress.com
Saturday, January 17th 2009
Residential customers of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) will soon have to pay more for their electricity supply, T&TEC general manager, Ernest Boxill, said yesterday.
Speaking at the commission's media luncheon at the Hilton Trinidad in Port of Spain, Boxill assured customers who recently experienced excessively high bills that the billing process would return to normal.
Still, he noted, "I must however point out that the because of the increased rates, now structured in three tiers, residential customers can expect increases in their bills ranging from approximately 12 per cent, for customers whose bi-monthly consumption is less than 400 units, to 52 per cent at a higher end, depending on how much more than a 1,000 units are consumed."
Boxill acknowledged the many complaints made by customers about the excessively high bills they received, which he said occurred because of difficulties experienced by T&TEC in coping with updating its customer billing information system.
"For this we sincerely apologise to all affected customers," he said.
He pointed out that the implementation of the advance metering infrastructure is approximately 75 per cent completed and currently, about 300,00 out of 400,00 meters have been changed, with the project scheduled for completion in June of this year.
One of T&TEC's primary focus areas for 2009, he said, is the improving of electricity reliability by reducing the frequency and duration of outages.
