MPs vote for independent investigation of high electricity bills

West Bay West MP McKeeva Bush, stating his electricity bill tripled over two months this summer to more than $4,000 and led to him being put on a repayment plan, has called on lawmakers to investigate how local power companies bill their customers.

Legislators voted in favour of Bush’s private member’s motion in Parliament on Thursday, 22 Sept., which resolved that an independent investigation by “knowledgeable people” be carried out into how electricity meters are read and how the results of those readings are computed for consumers’ power bills.

An amendment to his motion, added by Premier Wayne Panton, relating to a review of the fuel factor used in the bills, as well as the cost of fuel, was also passed.

That amendment led to a fractious exchange between Panton and his former finance minister Chris Saunders, who questioned if the premier’s ownership of propane gas company Clean Gas was a potential conflict of interest in the motion. Panton insisted it was not, as Clean Gas has nothing to do with the fuel the Caribbean Utilities Company or the Sister Islands power provider Island Electricity Ltd. use to generate electricity.

Four MPs – Roy McTaggart, Moses Kirkconnell, Joey Hew and Dwayne Seymour – did not take part in the vote on the motion, as they each declared an interest in CUC. Both Panton and Bush declared neither of them had any shares in the power company.

Repayment plan

Bush said he, like many of his and his fellow MPs’ constituents, had been hit by extremely high electricity bills this summer, without any apparent change in consumption.

“Just recently,” Bush told the House, “my bill increased from $1,400 or thereabouts, to $2,090, and the next one, $4,231.”

He said he had on two previous occasions challenged CUC bills, and the company had accepted that faulty meter readings had been the cause of those high amounts. However, with his recent bills, he said, the power company had acknowledged that, while they were unusually high, there had been no errors in the meter reading.

CUC placed him on a repayment plan to help pay the bill, Bush said, adding that it was the first time in his life he had needed such a plan.

He said his home had been empty for two weeks during one of the billing periods in question, with no air conditioning, water heater or lights being used.

Bush called for more transparency by the power companies, asking them to show that they are sourcing their diesel from cost-effective suppliers and that the best interests of consumers are being considered in their policies.

Premier: Renewable energy will lower bills

Panton, responding to Bush’s concerns and adding his own fuel-cost-related amendment to the motion, said the stated aim of government’s National Energy Policy to introduce more renewable energy options to Cayman would assist in reducing people’s power bill over time.

The policy calls for 70% of Cayman’s energy sources to be renewable by 2037, though the premier noted that a review of that policy was likely to include increasing that target and extending the target date.

Solar- and wind-generated energy would lower and stabilise costs, he said, adding, “As we increase the level of adoption of renewable energy, that is going to have a tamping-down effect on any type of volatility related to the generation of electricity by fossil fuels.”

Currently, the majority of power generated by CUC and Island Electric is through diesel.

Panton acknowledged that the widespread adoption of renewable energy in the islands would take years and, in the meantime, consumers would have to contend with the volatile price of diesel-generated power.

‘Trust and confidence’

He agreed with Bush that the public should be provided with a “level of trust and confidence” that the methods to calculate and bill their electricity consumption are accurate.

With that in mind, he suggested amending Bush’s motion to include that the same “knowledgeable people” who are tasked with checking how the power companies read meters and translate that into bills, also look into the fuel factor, which often accounts for half the cost of electricity outlined in bills, and report back to Cabinet and Parliament on their findings.

Saunders, in his comments on Bush’s original motion, which he seconded, outlined the amount and overall cost of fuel imported into the island in comparison with the amount CUC listed as being used for electricity generation in its annual reports.

Based on his analysis and review of CUC’s financial reports and data from the Port Authority, Saunders said, over the two-year period from 2020 to 2021, CUC used more than $144 million of $207 million worth of fuel that was imported into Cayman.

He said he would cover the issue more fully in his own motion, which was debated later in the day, which called for Parliament to set up a select committee to review the cost of fuel in Cayman.

Minister for Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure Jay Ebanks, under whose remit utilities fall, suggested that OfReg, the utilities and fuel regulator, could be considered as a “possible candidate to lead this investigation”, which he said should look into fuel costs, how calculations of various other factors that make up the bills are done, whether the companies source the best-priced fuel in the region, and that billing of customers is “fair and justified”.