CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR LIGHT BILL?

BEFORE WE ANSWER this question it is important to explain the various components that make your Electricity Bill. Understanding how these different components interact is the critical first step to be able to manage your consumption of this important utility and to monitor whether or not you as the consumer benefits from your energy saving measures.

Read the back of your light bill first
Unlike some other utility bills, the back of the light bill provides information on fourteen (14) key components of the service being charged for by the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPSCo). The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) will over the next few weeks be explaining the implications of each of these components to our readers, so that consumers can better understand how they are billed for these services and how they may reduce their consumption and save money.

Foreign Exchange
This refers to the foreign exchange rate that impact the cost for crude oil, which has to be imported, and the associated costs in providing the service. It is a direct function of the value of the Jamaican dollar and not a direct function of the energy consumption pattern of the consumer. In other words, even if you cut your monthly usage of this utility, the Base Exchange rate can still go up. The Base Exchange Rate along with the Billing Exchange Rate is used to determine what is called the Foreign Exchange Adjustment. The Billing Exchange is an average value of the Jamaican dollar to the US Dollar over the entire period for which the bill applies.

Fuel Rate
Jamaica does not have petroleum as a natural resource. The basic fuel used by JPSCo to provide electricity is crude oil, which has to be imported. Depending on the international cost for crude oil, which fluctuates from time to time based on external factors and decisions made by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the amount of foreign exchange required to import a quantity of crude oil will change. Therefore when there is an increase in the cost for crude oil on the world market, this increase will eventually be factored into your electricity bill.

Maintenance Costs
JPSCo identifies meter maintenance, bill delivery and some other costs such as cost for printing and paper required to get your bill to you as one collective component that is called the Customer Charge. This is also another cost that cannot be directly adjusted or controlled by the consumer. If these costs go up then the cost for the service will increase proportionately.

What costs can the consumer control?
Having read about all the areas of the light bill that the consumer cannot directly control, readers must really be wondering if in fact they can reduce their light bill or not. Yes you can! As with all utilities, the amount you pay is based on the amount you consume in principle. Therefore our focus in the next segment is ways you can manage your consumption, which will certainly save you some money.

Tell us what issues you want addressed

Send e-mail to: cacjam@infochan.com or star@gleaner.com

Write to us at: 1B Holborn Road, Kingston 10 Or call us at: 926-1650-2 or toll free 1-888-991-4470, ask for our Information Desk