instead located in Freeport, Puerto Rico, Orlando, Arizona or Hawaii, according to a study released to The Royal Gazette yesterday.

But hotels have been "stonewalled'' in their efforts to get a break from the Bermuda Electric Light Co. Ltd., a Bermuda Hotels Association spokesman said.

The 1,500-bed Southampton Princess paid $2.16 million to Belco for electricity for a one-year period in 1991-92, the study by Sullivan-Durand Inc. of Arizona showed.

Based on the same consumption, it would have paid only $1.27 million in Freeport, $928,000 in Puerto Rico, $743,000 in Orlando, $835,000 in Scottsdale, Arizona, and $845,000 in Hawaii, the study said.

The cost of electricity in the other resorts ranged from 34 percent of Bermuda costs in Orlando, Florida to 59 percent of Bermuda costs in Freeport, Bahamas.

Mr. Stephen Barker, regional vice-president of Princess Properties International, said: "Those are big differences.

"Bermuda is burdened with one of the highest electricity costs in the world.

Our clients will not pay that sort of a premium to come to Bermuda.'' Responding to recent comments in The Royal Gazette by Belco president Mr. Alf Oughton, Mr. Barker said the Princess Hotels and others had made great strides to reduce their electricity use, and would continue to do so.

But "the cost per kilowatt-hour has to come down,'' he said. "We don't want the community to be left with the impression that the solution is to use less.

"We have to compete with other hotels that are doing the same thing.'' The Princess Hotels and the Bermuda Hotel Association have talked to Belco about reducing electricity costs, but "have to date been stonewalled in our efforts to secure some sort of relief.'' Mr. Barker, who is also vice-president of the Bermuda Hotel Association, suggested Belco could trim costs of its own. "I think it was very generous of Mr. Oughton to employ those 50 extra people at Christmas,'' Mr. Barker said.

"We, unfortunately, do not have the profits which would enable us to make as magnanimous a gesture.'' Mr. Oughton was angered by that statement, and said the correct number of unemployed people hired over the holiday period was 10. The workers, who will cost Belco $50,000, will be employed with the utility for about another month, he said.

"I wouldn't even want to answer that comment,'' Mr. Oughton said in reference to the seasonal workers. "I would let that comment of his fall where it may.'' Mr. Oughton said he agreed electricity was expensive in Bermuda, but said so was almost everything else. "If you look at the total operations of the hotels in Bermuda, there are more items in their operating expenses apart from electricity that cost them more to do business,'' he said.

Were it not for the 15 percent duty paid on fuel oil, electricity costs in Bermuda would be about identical to those in Nassau, Mr. Oughton said. The Princess property in the Bahamas was served more cheaply by a small generating facility on Paradise Island, he said.

Mr. Oughton said he knew hotels were making great strides to conserve electricity, and said once results of a Belco customer survey were analysed, the utility might be able to sit down with the hotels and help them do more.

But while Belco did not seek a January 1 rate increase, "we can't consider going around cutting these rates at this point in time,'' he said.

Mr. Oughton said Belco faced higher costs because it imported materials and had to overbuild its generating facilities due to the Island's geographic isolation.