New debt plan proposes spike in Puerto Rico power bills

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Residential electric bills in Puerto Rico could increase by an average of $19 a month if a federal bankruptcy judge approves a proposal filed Thursday to restructure the staggering debt held by Puerto Rico’s power company.

The plan would cut by nearly half the more than $10 billion debt held by the Electric Power Authority — the largest of any government agency — and has the support of at least three major classes of creditors, according to a federal control board that oversees the U.S. territory’s finances and filed the proposal.

Board Chairman David Skeel noted that customers are not to blame for the power company’s bankruptcy, and that the legacy charge would be painful for residents and businesses already paying high power bills amid ongoing blackouts, but that there is no way to completely erase the company’s liabilities.

Skeel said that almost half of the power company’s 1.4 million residential customers would not pay the additional charge if they consume less than 500 kilowatt hours of electricity a month.

In 2021, the average monthly electricity consumption for a U.S. residential customer was about 886 kilowatt hours, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.