B.E.L Refutes P.U.C Claims

But, B.E.L. refutes the claim and its General Manager of Corporate Services, Dawn Nunez said today the company is disappointed in what it calls unfair and untrue allegations and accused the P.U.C. of being the one to not respond to its requests. During a zoom press conference today, she explained how B.E.L. dispatches power and the company’s Regulator Affairs Liaison, Leon Westby, said the P.U.C. accepted the costs.

Dawn Nunez

Dawn Nunez, General Manager, Employee & Corporate Services, B.E.L.

“In November of last year, the P.U.C. indeed wrote to B.E.L. formally to put those allegations to B.E.L. and the allegation was that B.E.L., you have dispatched power in a manner that ended up costing customers two million dollars more than should have been the case. We responded to the P.U.C. comprehensively in writing. We provided them with all the information, we refuted the allegations. Furthermore, we asked the P.U.C. to please respond to us and provide us with the evidence for your allegations against the company. And such a request is quite reasonable because when you make an allegation anyone, it’s expected that you’re going to bring evidence and supporting information to support your claim. The P.U.C. did not respond to B.E.L’s request for evidence and I can also share with you that later on there was a discussion between the C.E.O. of B.E.L. and the Chairman of the P.U.C. In that discussion, the C.E.O. asked the Chairman or inquired as to why there was no response from the P.U.C. and the Chairman’s response was to the effect that B.E.L. has documented its position and that is the end of that matter. So having said that, we were very surprised to see the allegation being made in the communication by the P.U.C. yesterday and both of you, I’m sure would have gone through that document in detail and nowhere in that document did the P.U.C. mention B.E.L’s response – the fact that we responded to their allegation comprehensively, and the fact that we asked the P.U.C. to please provide us with evidence as to their allegations and the fact that they did not respond. That was not at all in the communication.”

Leon Westby

Leon Westby, Regulatory Affairs Liaison, B.E.L.

“The P.U.C. has the authority and they have been adamant that they will not allow costs to pass on to customers if they deem that those costs were not justifiably incurred. If you look at their decision, the P.U.C. accepts the cost of power that was submitted by B.E.L. for the month of September, 2021 as is, which means then that they had, as Dawn explained, accepted B.E.L’s refutation of that allegation – that we mismanaged cost of power in that month. That’s the only explanation because they accepted it and they’ve been adamant that they will not pass it on if it were otherwise the case that customers should not bear that cost.”