Belco customers will see lower overall electricity rates from January 1.

A surcharge that was implemented in June this year will be removed after Saturday.

As a result, tariffs applied to energy charges for residential users, small commercial users and demand services, will be scaled back between 3.9 per cent and 18.4 per cent.

In June 2015, Belco asked for permission to set its rates at a point where it would “receive a reasonable return on equity in order to fund the ongoing infrastructure investment required to deliver highly reliable electricity to Bermuda”. The rate increases proposed were to provide a return on equity of 7 per cent in 2016, and 8 per cent in 2017.

In May, the Energy Commission issued a directive in response to the rate proposals. But as the directive was made five months into the year, a surcharge needed to be applied to base rates for Belco to achieve its required return on equity for the entire year. That additional surcharge will no longer apply after Saturday.

Separately, Belco has advised customers that due to a software issue, it is temporarily unable to accept payments with Mastercard credit cards. Should customers have any questions or concerns, they are asked to contact Belco’s customer care department on 299-2800.

See Related Media for Belco rate change document and tariff table