The battle over the Barbados Light & Power Company Ltd’s (BL&P) application for an electricity tariff increase is heating up ahead of next week Wednesday’s planned start of the substantive rate hearing.
Joint intervenors attorney Tricia Watson and chartered accountant David Simpson said they filed a motion last Friday requesting that the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) order BL&P to amend its rate application based on the FTC’s March 25 ruling on the utility company’s depreciation application.
“Our latest motion is intended to persuade the FTC to prevent the BL&P from proceeding with its rate application which, as a consequence of the FTC’s recent depreciation decision, is now known to be based on incorrect rates and calculations,” Watson asserted yesterday.
“In this case [BL&P] would be allowed to recover the cost of its investment in generation assets through depreciation. Depreciation calculations are key to value of the assets that are included in the rate base.