The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An Abaco poultry farm says high electricity costs are “holding back everything” after its light bill doubled to $14,000 over the summer.

Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird Poultry’s operations manager, told Tribune Business his planned hatchery is due to start construction this week but he remains concerned that soaring energy costs will slow down his progress.

Mr Pinder said: “I remember a few months ago, and the news reported that BPL (Bahamas Power & Light) bills were supposed to go down, but I don’t see it going down. I just see things going up.”

BPL’s so-called fuel “glide path” strategy, featuring a series of phased-in increases to the energy monopoly’s fuel charge, began in October 2022 to allow it to recoup previously “under-recovered” fuel costs worth at least $90m. These were incurred after BPL, and the Davis administration, failed to pass all the former’s fuel costs on to consumers.

The fuel cost “recovery” is due to last until end-March 2024, after which consumer bills will only reflect what BPL is paying to acquire fuel at market rates. BPL told the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) last month that fuel charges peaked at 27.6 cents per kilowatt hour (KWh) between June and August 2023, with this rate declining slightly to 25 cents for the three-month period between September and November.

Mr Pinder, though, said his bills have doubled year-over-year. “We have our hatchery equipment here and we are installing it this week, so we are working real hard on that right now, but I am just crying about my power bill and wondering when I might get some relief,” he added: “When your BPL bill doubles, that would put anybody back, especially when my bill goes from $7,000 to $14,000. It has to put you back.”

Abaco Big Bird cut its energy usage by 15 percent in June, but its bills have only increased since then, leaving Mr Pinder wondering “what’s really happening” at BPL. “This is affecting everything we do because you are putting money into BPL when you could be putting it into other things. It’s holding back everything. This is tough,” he said.

Despite this, Abaco Big Bird has held back on raising prices because “they can only go so high before people stop buying the product”.