If there is one thing that everyone in Bermuda uses, it is electricity.

That’s why Bermuda’s energy regulator wants to hear from as many people as possible as it works to set new pricing frameworks in a rapidly changing environment.

Fixed price Belco bills, variable rates for electricity depending on time of use and solar power charges are among topics that the Regulatory Authority hopes residents will weigh in on.

The watchdog has published several requests for input.

Abayomi Carmichael, the RA’s senior manager for energy, said: “These things have and I believe will continue to shape the decisions and policies that the RA has made based on feedback from the public.”

He added: “I’m particularly looking to emphasise feedback from people who we don’t normally get it from."

Mr Carmichael said: “We want a fair and balanced set of views from a diverse range of people that will make sure that policy suits a diverse range of people.”

Public comment was sought on the Retail Tariff Design Restructuring Report, which aims to re-evaluate how electricity bills are determined and is open until November 21.

Mr Carmichael explained: “That gets into the nitty-gritty detail of how individual bills are calculated and we’ve asked what we think are some pretty substantive questions to get people’s views on how we can modernise that.”

He added that the RA saw opportunities to make bills more equitable.

Mr Carmichael said: “There is an idea other jurisdictions use called budget billing.

“Say [your] electricity bill in the winter is $300 a month, in the summer it’s $500 a month. We can say, you know what, why don’t we fix your bill at $400 a month so that you know it’s going to be $400?

“Even though your usage is going to go up and down, we can level it out over the year. Of course, at the end of that if there’s some discrepancy it has to be resolved at the end of the year.

“Think about a business owner, to have the certainty of knowing what their electricity bill is going to be every month.”

He added: “There is some risk to that. There might be somebody who believes that ‘hey, it’s the middle of the summer, my bill’s only $300, so I can burn my AC all day’ … but for the most part I think it has worked really well in other jurisdictions.

“We’re really curious as to how people will view it here.”

Mr Carmichael said: “We have ideas around what we’re calling a programme for eligible customers, basically people who would need some sort of financial assistance to pay their electricity bills.

“We’re asking customers their views on that, in particular, if they’re favourable towards it … how should it be treated financially? Is that spread across all customers? How are the costs of those types of programmes dealt with?”

Nigel Burgess, the authority’s head of regulation, pointed out: “Belco cannot charge any rates or tariffs which are not approved or set by the RA.”

Mr Carmichael said another option for consideration was a time-of-use approach.

He explained: “In other words, you can lower bills if you turn on your water heater at 2am instead of 5pm … if you’ve got an electric vehicle, plug it in late rather than early.

“Those are things we’re asking the public do they have an interest in, and we can gauge their feedback.”

Public consultation is open until November 7 on a review of the Feed-in Tariff Methodology.

Mr Carmichael said the Fit was the rate at which renewable energy is purchased and sold.

He explained: “You have solar on your roof and I do not. I’m in some ways buying power from you and the rate is what I’m paying to Belco and Belco is paying to you.

“All parties have a say as to what should go into that rate.

“The legislation says it can, at most, be the avoided cost of what would otherwise happen if Belco had to generate that power. What would it cost them? That’s the most you can charge for it.

“We do have some latitude around things like cost of carbon, for example, which in theory could be added on top — we’re keen to see what other people have to say about doing that or not doing that.”

Mr Carmichael added: “We would love to see more comments from non-solar customers.”

A Retail Tariff Methodology Consultation document has a deadline for responses of November 14, 2022.

Mr Carmichael said: “This is essentially an opportunity to refresh the approach as to how do we go about a legislative framework that would allow Belco to recover its revenue, and ultimately that translates into rates, which is really what users are interested in.”

He added that the RA’s job was to work out “a fair, reasonable way” for the power company to recover its costs.

Mr Carmichael admitted the consultation document was “a pretty heavy read” but highlighted that people can choose to respond only to questions they were interested in.

He said: “Everybody has a say but we need to get them to the point where they can feel informed enough to speak to the matter.

“Part of that is certainly on us to take a fairly complex legal, financial, technical world and make it into layman’s terms.

“The truth is there’s an ocean of things competing for people’s attention.

“Electricity, you might argue, is not the sexiest of topics but it is important.”

Public consultation is also open until Monday, October 31 on the RA’s Work Plan and Budget for 2023-24.

• For more information, visitra.bm.