The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. aims to better explain to customers the LEAC, or levelized energy adjustment clause, in their bills each month by renaming this as the \u201cfuel adjustment clause.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of this, they have put out pamphlets in English, Chamorro, and Carolinian to explain this rate. One pamphlet reads \u201cHafa LEAC?\u201d<\/p>\n
LEAC is one of two components of a customer\u2019s power bill. LEAC is used for fuel purchases. The second rate component is the electric base rate, which is used to fund operations, projects, and debt repayment.<\/p>\n
Georgetown Consulting Group called the pamphlets \u201can excellent first step\u201d in a public hearing and workshop last Thursday.<\/p>\n
At the hearing, CUC consultant Robert Young said these efforts stem from how this was a \u201ctechnically-laden\u201d industry and how English is not always the primary language in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
He also said a \u201cpoint of change\u201d was when former governor Juan N. Babauta asked what was the LEAC charge he had to pay.<\/p>\n
In order to do a better job of explaining its rates, CUC aims to change the LEAC charge to \u201cfuel-adjustment clause.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said other utilities have used the word \u201cfuel\u201d in their charges, and clarified this was just a name change.<\/p>\n
Georgetown consultant Larry Gawlik said there has not been \u201csufficient transparency\u201d about what this rate is about.<\/p>\n
Georgetown Consulting agrees that the rate name should \u201cconnotate what the charge is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, in a written report to the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission, the consulting group argued that LEAC name be kept because, among others, that energy costs would be included in future LEAC rates.<\/p>\n
CUC counsel James Sirok said, though, that 85 to 90 percent of the charges in the LEAC were \u201cfuel-related.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said that Georgetown Consulting\u2019s opinion regarding how much CUC customers understand the rate is \u201cbased on speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hear from customers on a daily basis. We have a factual basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. aims to better explain to customers the LEAC, or levelized energy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,4435,280,4436],"class_list":["post-201198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cuc","tag-georgetown-consulting-group","tag-leac","tag-robert-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}