CUC report more customers but lower usage

For the third quarter of 2022, ending 30 September, CUC saw growing customer numbers and energy sales, but lower average consumption by residential customers in the face of high fuel prices. Consumers have been assisted by CUC’s Government Fuel Cost Relief programme which has given cash back to residential customers who use 2,000 kWh or less each month. Earnings increased slightly over the same period last year.

CUC also reported that it had seen depreciation charges increase for the quarter, which they said were related to Seven Mile Beach and Prospect Substations and other growth-related capital projects coming into service. Reliability and safety results were as planned they endured Tropical Storm Ian with minimal physical damage, they said.

Global fuel prices continued to rise in the third quarter impacting CUC’s fuel costs. Power generation expenses for the third quarter of 2022 totalled $52.4 million, an increase of 70% compared to $30.8 million for the same period last year, due to the 75% increase in the average fuel price per imperial gallon during Q3 2022 in comparison to Q3 2021. The average Fuel Cost Charge rate billed to consumers for Q3 2022 was $0.29 per kWh, compared to $0.17 per kWh last year. CUC said it passed through all fuel costs and renewable costs to consumers on a two-month lag basis with no mark-up.

Net earnings for the third quarter of 2022 totalled $10.4 million, an increase of $0.3 million or 3% in comparison to $10.1 million last year, due to an increase in kWh sales by 2% and customer growth of 3%. The net earnings during the period were positively impacted by the decrease of transmission and distribution costs and higher foreign exchange gains and negatively impacted by increase in depreciation expense, general and administration cost and higher finance charges.

After the adjustment for dividends on the preference shares of the Company, earnings on Class A Ordinary Shares for Q3 2022 totalled $10.3 million, or $0.28 per Class A Ordinary Share, in comparison to earnings of $10.0 million, or $0.26 per Class A Ordinary Share for Q3 2021. 3 Net earnings for the nine months ending 30 September, 2022 totalled $24.2 million, an increase of $2.2 million or 10% when compared to last year. After the adjustment for dividends on CUC’s preference shares, earnings on Class A Ordinary Shares for the nine months ending 30 September, 2022 totalled $23.9 million, or $0.64 per Class A Ordinary Share, in comparison to $21.7 million, or $0.58 per Class A Ordinary Share, for the same period last year.

Sales for the third quarter of 2022 totalled 184.0 million kWh, an increase of 4.1 million kWh or 2% in comparison last year, driven by the higher commercial customer sales in Q3 2022 compared to Q3 2021 and the 3% increase in customer numbers between Q3 2022 and Q3 2021. Sales in kWh for the nine months ending 30 September, 2022 totalled 504.6 million kWh, an increase of 10.1 million kWh on last year, due to a 3% growth in overall customer numbers for the nine months ending 30 September, 2022 compared to last year. The number of customers at the end of 30 September, 2022 was 32,865, an increase of 901 customers, or 3%, compared to 31,964 customers last year. During Q3 2022, CUC recorded a new system peak load of 113.573 megawatts.

President and CEO, Richard Hew, stated: “The state of the current global fuel markets emphasises the need and our desire to advance activities under the Integrated Resource Plan as quickly as possible, particularly utility scale solar projects, to transition to more sustainable energy solutions that bring price stability and reduce carbon emissions. Tropical Storm Ian also reminds us of the importance of building resilient systems such as our indoor substations to adapt to more frequent storms brought by climate change.”