7 News Belize

BEL's Meter Minders Insist on Transparency
posted (July 20, 2020)
Last week, the Public Utilities Commissioner gave BEL a combination of body blows, attacking the monopoly utility on multiple fronts.

First, the PUC lamented that the company was asking for an independent expert to review the PUC's full tariff decision, then, the PUC said that it would have to issue an order forcing BEL to sign a power purchase agreement with Santander.

And, then, almost as an aside - when asked to explain the reports of high bills recently - the PUC chairman publicly speculated that BEL was probably just averaging out meter readings rather than sending meter readers to your house. He said this was probably a COVID safety measure.

That made a whole lot of sense to many at home who saw their light bills spike in the last few months.

But, BEL went on the offensive saying it was a baseless and untrue allegation. The utility opened this week doubling down on that with a public relations offensive, - inviting the media out to see their meter readers at work.

We did that and spoke to two of the managers who deal with billing and meter services. We spoke with them via zoom video conference:

Now, when a bill is too high or too low - it is flagged in the system. We asked if many of those had been coming up recently:

Again, if you feel your bill has an error you should call BEL or go in to make that challenge formal.

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