ACM publishes maximum tariffs 2019 for electricity and drinking water in St. Eustatius
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (hereinafter referred to as ACM) sets new maximum tariffs as of January 1st, 2019 for electricity and drinking water in St. Eustatius. It concerns the maximum fixed usage tariff and the maximum variable usage tariff which the St. Eustatius Utility Company NV (hereinafter referred to as STUCO) may charge consumers as of January 1st, 2019 to cover the costs of the production and supply of electricity and drinking water. ACM also sets the user connection and reconnection charges for 2019.
Pursuant to the BES Electricity and Drinking Water Act (Wet elektriciteit en drinkwater BES) it is ACM's duty to annually set cost-covering tariffs. This means that ACM has calculated what it costs STUCO to produce electricity and drinking water and to supply this to consumers. ACM publishes the tariff decisions for electricity and drinking water on the ACM website.
Tariff changes
The variable usage tariff for electricity in St. Eustatius drops from USD 0.3105/kWh to USD 0.2965/kWh. The costs for the fixed usage tariff for electricity will increase: for consumers with the lowest connection capacity this will be USD 1 extra per month.
The variable usage tariff for drinking water in St. Eustatius will decrease from USD 8.34 to USD 7.87 per cubic metre of drinking water. This reduction is caused by the increased production: the fixed costs of the drinking water production are divided across a larger amount of drinking water, resulting in lower costs per cubic metre of drinking water.
The costs for the fixed usage tariff for drinking water dropped: from USD 71.06 to USD 69.92 per connection per month (excluding subsidy). The connection charges (charges for new connections) have only been adjusted for inflation.
The reconnection charge has remained unchanged at USD 40.
In order to take account of the affordability of electricity and drinking water for small households in particular, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management have the option of reducing the fixed usage tariff for electricity and drinking water through subsidisation. As soon as these subsidy measures have been announced, STUCO will notify its customers of the tariffs it will charge as of January 1st.