LUMA Energy told the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau that customers were billed $54.4 million less for fuel in September than it cost to generate their power, a fuel shortfall that regulators may eventually ask ratepayers to cover. The company asked for no rate change in the filing.
The figure comes from a four-page informative motion LUMA filed on Oct. 15 in the Bureau’s permanent rate docket, NEPR-MI-2020-0001, with a five-page exhibit attached. The company reports that the fuel cost to be recovered for September was $223.0 million, while revenue billed through the fuel adjustment clause came to $168.7 million. The difference is $54,373,961.22.
LUMA also reported a $6.35 million credit owed to customers on the purchased-power side, where costs of $70.1 million came in below the $76.4 million billed. Netting the credit against the fuel shortfall leaves roughly $48 million, which appears to be the figure some local outlets reported. That netting is our arithmetic, not a number stated in the filing.
What drove the fuel shortfall
LUMA’s exhibit attributes the overrun to price and to supply. The cost per barrel of fuel in September was 29.74% higher than forecast, according to the report. Total actual fuel cost was $223.2 million before a $140,688 prior-period adjustment, which brings the amount to be recovered to the $223.0 million cited above, against a forecast of $159.1 million.
The report also points to generation problems. It says Genera PR, the company that runs the legacy power plants, reported that 7 of its 14 temporary units were offline. AES Unit 1 and Aguirre Unit 2 “remained out of service for extended periods,” the exhibit states.
What happens next
The filing does not ask the Bureau to change what customers pay. Its closing request is that the Bureau “take notice” of the figures and grant any relief it deems appropriate. The company’s tariff riders do contemplate an accelerated adjustment if fuel and purchased-power costs deviate from projections by more than $20 million, but only if the Bureau orders it. The gap between forecast and actual fuel cost in LUMA’s own exhibit is about $64 million.
Neither document says which months an adjustment would cover, and the Bureau’s docket showed no order responding to the filing as of Oct. 21. El Nuevo Día has reported that residents pay about 33.86 cents per kilowatt-hour now and that an increase of around 1.8 cents is possible, but that projection does not appear in LUMA’s filing.
For households in Condado and the rest of San Juan, the fuel shortfall matters because fuel and purchased-power adjustments flow through to the monthly bill. We will update this story when the Bureau acts.
Related coverage: NFEnergía Skips House Hearing as Energy Bureau Chief Presses to Pull 3PPO From Temporary-Power Buying
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Sources: Puerto Rico Energy Bureau docket NEPR-MI-2020-0001, including LUMA’s Oct. 15 informative motion and its Exhibit 1; El Nuevo Día; El Vocero.
Image: AI-generated illustration.
