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Your power bill from October: what the new rate costs at home
The Energy Bureau approved higher charges for October through December. Enter your monthly use to see what changes on your bill.
The short version
- Puerto Rico's Energy Bureau approved an increase of 5.28¢ a kWh for October through December, NotiCel reported, less than LUMA asked for.
- At 800 kWh a month, a general residential bill goes from $228.59 to $270.86, per the Energy Bureau's Sept. 30 order.
- The Bureau left out $17.6 million tied to natural gas supply shortfalls and uncollectible accounts for now, and ordered an audit of costs and payments tied to New Fortress Energy, NotiCel reported.
Your bill, before and after October
Find "Consumo (kWh)" on your LUMA bill and enter it here, or drag the line on the chart.
This calculator goes up to 3,000 kWh.
July–September
$229
28.6¢ a kWh, all charges
October–December
$271
33.9¢ a kWh, all charges
$42 a month (+18%)
A full billing month, general residential rate, before subsidies. October to December is per the Energy Bureau's Sept. 30 order, which puts the bill at $270.86 at 800 kWh. At other usages we add the order's 5.28¢ a kWh to the July to September charges, so those figures read "about" until LUMA posts the itemized charges. Your bill can differ: billing periods that straddle October 1, subsidies, net metering, deposits and past balances are not included.
What we know
The July to September bill at 800 kWh, $228.59, comes from the charges LUMA posted for that quarter, 28.57¢ a kWh all-in. El Nuevo Día reported the same figures.
El Nuevo Día reported a bill of $270.86 for 800 kWh from October, $42.27 more than July to September.
That is an increase of 18.5%, the paper reported. The Bureau's order puts the rate at that usage at 33.86¢ a kWh, all charges included.
The Bureau said units out of service and short natural gas deliveries forced the use of costlier fuels, NotiCel reported.
“Fuel already consumed has to be paid for, and the fuel needed to run the system in October, November and December 2026 has to be bought.”
“El combustible ya consumido tiene que pagarse y el combustible necesario para operar el sistema durante octubre, noviembre y diciembre de 2026 tiene que adquirirse.”
“Fuel costs should not be passed on to consumers automatically just because they were incurred or billed.”
“Los costos de combustible no deben trasladarse automáticamente al consumidor por el solo hecho de haber sido incurridos o facturados”
Your bill at four common amounts
| Monthly use | July to Sept. | Oct. to Dec. | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 kWh | $91 | about $107 | $16 (+18%) |
| 800 kWh | $229 | $271 | $42 (+18%) |
| 1,500 kWh | $422 | about $501 | $79 (+19%) |
| 3,000 kWh | $835 | about $994 | $159 (+19%) |
General residential rate, a full month, before subsidies. October to December at 800 kWh is the Energy Bureau's Sept. 30 order, $270.86. The other rows add the order's 5.28¢ a kWh to the July to September charges, our arithmetic until LUMA posts the itemized charges.
Where the money goes on an 800 kWh bill
The charges that change every quarter
Why the fuel charge went up
At a Bureau hearing before the decision, Genera PR's fuel department put the extra cost of burning diesel at $15.4 million for two units at the San Juan plant, and $2.2 million for temporary units at Palo Seco, El Nuevo Día reported.
The total was later raised to just over $32 million to include a delivery to the Costa Sur plant, the paper reported.
LUMA said about $70 million in deferred charges are in dispute with New Fortress Energy and Naturgy over natural gas deliveries since 2024, according to the same report.
Will it come back down after December?
Based on the Energy Bureau's quarterly orders since 2023, the October to December all-in rate at 800 kWh rose in two of three years. After both increases, the following January to March came back down by 0.49¢ to 1.28¢ a kWh, but not to the September level.
| Year | Sept. | Oct. to Dec. | The January after |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 20.12¢ | 23.44¢ | 22.95¢ |
| 2024 | 23.78¢ | 23.78¢ | 26.04¢ |
| 2025 | 25.48¢ | 27.51¢ | 26.23¢ |
| 2026 | 28.57¢ | 33.86¢ | Set in December |
LUMA's table of fuel and purchased-power charges goes back to 2019. In it, after the autumn increases of 2019 and 2021 the January to March charge went higher still, and after those of 2023 and 2025 it came down part of the way. In no year did it return to the September level by January.
What the Sept. 30 order says about this increase
The order sets the fuel charge for October to December at 17.36¢ a kWh. By our arithmetic from the order's own figures, 3.34¢ of it recovers a $131.7 million gap between what fuel cost from June to August and what the fuel charge collected in those months, and 14.02¢ pays for the fuel the order projects for October to December.
The order says the new charges apply from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, or until the Bureau changes them. It gave LUMA until Dec. 14 to file the charges for January to March, with the reconciliation for September, October and November.
“According to LUMA's Sept. 15 proposal, the fuel charge increase for October to December 2026 responds to a combination of fuel costs already incurred during the previous quarter and projected costs needed to keep the system running over the next three months.”
“Según la propuesta de LUMA de 15 de septiembre, para el trimestre de octubre a diciembre de 2026, el aumento de FCA responde a una combinación de costos de combustible ya incurridos durante el trimestre anterior y costos proyectados necesarios para mantener la operación del sistema durante los próximos tres meses.”
“From June 1 to Aug. 31, 2026, revenue was lower than the costs to be recovered. LUMA therefore asked to recover the difference from consumers in the next billing period.”
“Durante el periodo del 1 de junio de 2026 al 31 de agosto de 2026 los ingresos fueron menores que los costos a ser recuperados. Por lo tanto, LUMA solicitó recuperar la diferencia de los consumidores durante el próximo periodo de facturación.”
What other outlets reported
- El Nuevo Día called the new rate a record, above the 33.4¢ average in effect in July 2022.
- LUMA's Sept. 15 filing sought 6.07¢ more a kWh, about 21%, which would have brought the rate to 34.64¢, El Nuevo Día reported.
- NotiCel put LUMA's request higher, at 6.666¢ a kWh.
- Metro PR compared the new rate with U.S. Energy Information Administration state averages for July and placed Puerto Rico third, behind Hawaii and California. Those averages divide each state's residential revenue by its sales, so they measure something different from a rate at one level of use.
- WAPA TV and La Perla del Sur also reported the increase.
What's not known yet
- The itemized October charges. Until LUMA posts them, our calculator adds the order's 5.28¢ a kWh to the July to September charges at usages other than 800 kWh, the one the order publishes.
- Whether the $17.6 million the Bureau left out for now will reach bills later.
- The charges for January to March. LUMA must propose them by Dec. 14, and the Bureau sets them after that.
Sources and data: El Nuevo Día, WAPA TV, NotiCel, La Perla del Sur, Metro PR, LUMA's Table of Factors, the Energy Bureau's Sept. 30 order, its quarterly orders since 2023 details
Reports
- El Nuevo Día, Sep 28, 2026: El costo por el uso del diésel está al centro del ajuste en la tarifa que aplicará desde el jueves (our summary)
- WAPA TV, Sep 30, 2026: Puerto Rico Electric Bills to Rise Starting Tomorrow, Energy Bureau Confirms (our summary, with more from this report)
- El Nuevo Día, Sep 30, 2026: Nueva tarifa récord: alza de 18% lleva el costo del kilovatio hora a 33.6 centavos (our summary)
- NotiCel, Sep 30, 2026: Negociado de Energía aprueba aumento de 5.28 centavos por kilovatio-hora en factura de luz
- La Perla del Sur, Oct 1, 2026: Electric Bill Hits Record: $113 More per Month Since LUMA Took Over (our summary, with more from this report)
- Metro PR, Oct 1, 2026: Puerto Rico tendría la tercera luz más cara de Estados Unidos: ¿cómo se compara con Hawaii? (our summary, with more from this report)
- La Perla del Sur, Oct 1, 2026: New Electricity Rate Arrives in Puerto Rico, As Warned by IEEFA (our summary, with more from this report)
Data
- Quarterly charges approved by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, as posted by LUMA in its Table of Factors (July to September 2026).
- Base rate and customer charge from LUMA's tariff book, effective July 1, 2026.
- The October to December bill at 800 kWh and the change per kWh, from the general residential row of the Energy Bureau's Sept. 30 order, matching NotiCel's and El Nuevo Día's reports.
- The bill at 800 kWh, all charges, for each quarter since July 2023, from the general residential row of the Energy Bureau's quarterly orders (case NEPR-MI-2020-0001), linked below.
- Fuel and purchased-power charges since May 2019, from LUMA's Table of Factors.
- LUMA's Table of Factors, retrieved Oct 1, 2026.
The Energy Bureau's quarterly orders
- Resolución y Orden, Jul 31, 2023
- Resolución y Orden, Sep 29, 2023
- Resolución y Orden, Mar 27, 2024
- Resolución y Orden, Dec 20, 2024
- Resolución y Orden, Mar 28, 2025
- Resolución y Orden, Jun 30, 2025
- Resolución y Orden, Sep 30, 2025
- Resolución y Orden, Dec 19, 2025
- Resolución y Orden, Mar 27, 2026
- Resolución y Orden, Jun 30, 2026
- Resolución y Orden, Sep 30, 2026
How the calculator works
A month's bill is the customer charge ($8.00) plus your kWh times the base rate and the quarter's charges: fuel, purchased power, and subsidies, municipal and efficiency charges. October to December adds the 5.28¢ a kWh change in the Energy Bureau's Sept. 30 order to July to September's charges. At 800 kWh that gives the order's own bill, $270.86. At any other usage it is our arithmetic, marked "about", until LUMA posts the itemized charges. Amounts are rounded to whole dollars, and the change and percent are computed from those rounded amounts.
Not included
Billing periods that straddle October 1, subsidies, net metering, deposits and past balances.