BEL Points to Several Possible Factors Behind Higher Electricity Bills

The Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) is also responding to an increase in complaints from customers who say their electricity bills have risen sharply. Executive Chairman Lyn Young says the company has been examining the accounts of consumers who filed formal complaints to determine what caused the higher charges.  Young says BEL’s investigations have uncovered several explanations for the increases. These include higher electricity consumption, longer billing periods, adjustments following estimated meter readings and the increased use of air-conditioning and other high-energy appliances.

Lynn Young, Executive Chairman, BEL: “I can’t explain the ones that we haven’t seen but the ones that have come to us all of them we have found the reasons why. And it’s the reasons that I explained there. We’ve had a couple where, like I said, especially the ones that look very high where there were arrears on the bill that the customer wasn’t aware of. We’ve had that situation. We also had a situation where we changed meters and so the previous meter, the meter reader wasn’t reading the meter accurately. So let’s say the meter is saying the total accumulative is 36,000 kilowatt hours. But on record we have that the person only had used up to 34,000. So when we change the meter and pick up the correct reading then there’s a jump in the bill. So we found that to happen, right? But the heat does, I mean if you understand how the electricity works with refrigerators and air conditioning it does affect it. If you look at your bill over the course of 12 months and you look over the years see that around May-June it starts going up and then around November it starts going down again. And that’s the consumption, how much electricity are you using, right? So it is there. You could look at your bill and you can see it. But like I said, almost every instance that we’ve checked, it’s a case that it follows the normal pattern or there was a situation where it was being under read for a while and it’s a one-time adjustment catch up when we change meters. And we’ve had a few instances where the meter somebody must have tampered with the meter because it wasn’t working properly.”

Young encouraged customers who believe their bills are unusually high to file an official complaint so BEL can review their meter readings, consumption history and billing period. He acknowledged the public’s mistrust of the company but assured consumers that BEL will correct any error found on its part.

Lynn Young, Executive Chairman, BEL: “I understand people being skeptical about companies, big companies. That’s something that all companies face. We have to live with that. We have to be factual. We have to be honest about what is happening. That’s what we do. If we find that we’ve done something wrong, we say, “Hey, there’s a mistake here,” and we make the correction. We haven’t found, there have been instances of people making mistakes when they read the meters. That has happened, somebody puts a nine for a six that has happened, and when we have that situation we correct it. But to systematically be charging people higher than they should be charged, that is, it is, nothing is impossible but if you understand the billing system it’s a computer system. It would take a lot of genius to be able to go and manipulate it so they can pick out somebody.”

Young says every complaint will be examined individually, since the reason for an increase may differ from one account to another. He maintains that if the investigation confirms BEL made a mistake, the company will rectify the customer’s account.