After reviewing the Fiscal Year Report 2023-2024 that Generates pr He sent him 10 months late, the PUERTO RICO ENERGY BIRTH (NEPR) concluded that the company could accrue “approximately” $ 5.9 million in performance bonuses, far from the top of $ 100 million annually and, even below the $ 15.7 million that the Public Public Alliances Authority (Aapp) had approved.
The information arises from a resolution and order whose text has not been disclosed by the NEPR, but was summarized in the last ordinary meeting of the organism by the commissioner Ferdinand Ramos Soegaard. The official explained that, in the resolution, it was ordered to generate the legal arguments that justify, in detail, its approach that the “incentive and penalty report” must remain under a mantle of confidentiality, as the operator claimed in June.
The resolution, said Ramos Soegaard, asks that Generates PR detail “specifically” the sections of the report that must be protected “considering that a significant part of the information presented is obviously public”.
Likewise, the commissioner added that, based on the analysis collected in the document, “the NEPR concludes that the ‘Incentive and Penishes Report’ of the 2024 fiscal year of Genera does not provide sufficient verified information to support the total approval of the requested incentive payments.”
“After the relevant evaluation, the NEPR finds that it generates can be eligible for incentives up to approximately $ 5.9 million”Ramos Soegaard continued.
On June 24, PR resorted to Court of Appeals with a view to challenge the supposed undue intervention of the NEPR In the evaluation of the incentives claimed for their first year as operator of the generatrix fleet, claiming that the regulator had “usurped” powers that correspond exclusively to the AAPP.
According to PR, based on its performance in 2023-2024, they correspond to just over $ 48 million in bonuses, although AAPP itself had previously awarded $ 15.7 million. The NEPR, on the other hand, had indicated, on May 23, which, because the annual report had not been delivered, Generates PR could not get any reward.
Generates PR finally delivered the report to the regulator on May 30, and submitted a motion days later in which demanded that the document be confidential.
One of the great differences between the company’s claim and the conclusions of the NEPR focuses around one of the initiatives generated by PR proposed as part of its “fuel optimization plan”, but which was denied by the body.
Specifically, generates PR said that bonuses must be granted for “asset supplementation” strategies, which involve obtaining equipment that promote greater efficiency or capacity in energy generation. Under that line, generates PR demanded benefits for renting free cost of natural gas regasification equipment to its matrix New Fortress Energy (NFE).
The NEPR, however, has labeled that strategy to consider, among other elements, that it is part of the obligations that NFE already has under its natural gas supply contracts for San Juan and Palo Seco central (Toa Baja).
At the ordinary meeting last week – in which the Judicial Review of Genera was not mentioned – Ramos Soegaard indicated that, after resolution and order, the NEPR would send the matter again at the hands of the AAPP.
The incentive scheme of Genera PR has been under the magnifying glass since, in February, the company agreed with the government to eliminate that component of the contract, in exchange for a disbursement of $ 110 million, amendments that the NEPR eventually stopped. While the administration of the governor Jenniffer González He has affirmed that amendments would produce savings Ascending to $ 800 million throughout the life of the generation of generate PR, the estimate is based on the premise that the operator would accrue the top of incentives year after year.
