Although at the beginning of July the review procedure of the base rate of the electrical system must be started, Luma Energy He estimates that fiscal year 2025-2026 will begin with A $ 117 million deficitbetween the available budget and “the minimum financing necessary to maintain the electrical system”, once the adjustment is made for the inflation registered at the end of 2024.
For the consortium, the calculation made at the request of the PUERTO RICO ENERGY BIRTH (NEPR) “clearly illustrates that Luma’s financial scenario in fiscal year 2026 will be even more restrictive than in fiscal year 2025”.
The analysis that Luma delivered on June 13 He responded to a requirement for information from the NEPR, which had ordered him to report whether, in the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026-which begins on July 1-, an adjustment for inflation could be included without violating the limits of the current base rate, dating from 2017.
Luma – which has estimated that it needs a budget of between $ 500 million and $ 800 million greater than the $ 693 million it currently has – warned that, By 2025-2026, it projects that the income corresponding to the total base rate $ 1,160 millionslightly exceeding the $ 1,151 million that he hopes to raise in the fiscal year that is about to end.
Despite the slight increase, he pointed out that the items available for their budget, as well as those of Generates pr and the Electricity Authoritythey would suffer considerable casualties because, for the moment, The approval of an supplementary departure from the central government is not contemplated. For 2024-2025, the Authority for private public alliances He gave way to a special allocation of $ 74.7 million that, according to Luma, helped mitigate inflation adjustments to the impossibility of raising the base rate.
“Despite the additional funds, Luma had to postpone different activities within the assigned funds, underlining the lag between the needs of the system and the available resources. Looking to the future, the financial landscape for fiscal year 2026 is even more worrying ”the company accentuated.
“Without this supplementary financing, it is projected that the Fiscal Year 2026 experience Fiscal Year Budget 2025 without exceeding the limitations of established income for the 2017 tariff order ”.
The NEPR has advanced that the electrical system budget to start the incoming fiscal year will be the same as the current expenses program. However, once Luma presents its proposal to review the base rate on July 3, the NEPR may give way to a “provisional” increase of that component of the invoice, which would be in force until the analysis is completed during the first half of 2026, providing additional income to the three operators of the system.
Currently, the basic rate is around 7 cents per kilowatt hour, a amount that would increase between 3 and 5 cents to accommodate the income requirements that Luma has publicly claimed.
