The Guyana and Power Light (GPL) is to have in place a tariff rebalancing plan by November and to start implementing this by January.
Maxine Nestor, adviser to Prime Minister Sam Hinds, says business customers are to benefit under this rebalancing and what GPL would seek to do is to credit these customers with any benefits from the loss reduction programme.
The sum of US$8.1M is to be spent on loss reduction by GPL over the next five years and savings from this exercise will go towards reducing the cost of electricity to businesses.
Nestor says that as it is, it would not be advisable to increase tariffs to either residential or business customers. Therefore, savings must come from another source to reduce the cost businesses face. A number of businesses have been coming off the national grid because the high cost of electricity makes their operations uncompetitive.
Nestor says GPL is very aware of this and is working on the rate rebalancing plan.
When a business customer gets off the grid, it is equivalent to about 15,000 or 20,000 residential customers coming off the grid.