Submitted by Zee Babb

Let us say that BL&P technically and legally have a case for a review of rates. Even if only on the basis of not having done so for 25 years.

But on what basis does a company that has been making profits every year – not even based on competitive productivity, but on legislated guarantee, demand their right to earn an additional 4.4 % return on investment in a market where all others are facing losses, cutbacks, layoffs and failures?

BL&P is guaranteed a profit on whatever expenses they can convince the FTC they need to incur to produce electricity.

What ever salaries

What ever consultants

What ever equipment

What ever ‘expenses’

The cost of fuel means nothing to them – it is passed directly on to customers.

They presently add these costs all up and collect a cool 6% profit on top. (so the bigger the *cost of operation* the bigger their profits) They now want 10.4% instead of only 6%..

No wonder they do not care about renewables.

As recently as 4 years ago, this may have been understandable. But how can it be justified in 2009? It sends the message that BL&P, in their effort to get their pound of flesh, is willing and committed to squeezing every last drop of blood from their captive customers especially the small ones– even as these customers lie on their sick beds.

The very fact that this company could persist with this case at this time, and even worse, their admission that no consideration was taken of any effects on customers, belies their claimed concern for their customers and smacks of strong influence in their decision making that is external to this country.

The 6% which they admit that they are currently making is an outstanding performance by any measure in the current economic environment. They continue to enjoy the luxury of operating in the absence of any competition, and of perpetuating the myth of *good management* and high efficiency.

The facts are that their performance is mediocre at best. Huge sums are paid to external consultants for most areas of technical work that should be performed internally; their amateurish performance with the current wind project is laughable. The proposed gas pipeline from Trinidad and the related development at St Lucy has been a complete and expensive mess, and they badly lost the one project in which they had to compete against other competitors – the desalination plant.

It is also obvious that they managed without a rate increase for 30 years because of high market growth and on rates that had been overly generous as Wendell McClean had said at the time. During that period, the real price to customers of many similar products actually fell.

A Company that really cared about its customers, and indeed about itself, would at this time be much more focused on easing the strain that is presently suffocating many of its customers. This could be achieved by offering mechanisms to ease the strain of high payments, cutting down on wastage, improving efficiency, and moving to renewable technologies.

A rate application at this time by a profit making BL&P is insensitive, inconsiderate and insulting to those other companies and households in Barbados that are fighting to keep their heads above water.

Shame!!