San Juan district Senator Nitza Morán Trinidad proposed equalizing Puerto Rico’s commercial electricity rate with the residential rate and convening a working group to design a sustainable relief mechanism for businesses. She unveiled the proposal during a panel organized by the Restaurant Association of Puerto Rico (ASORE) and later explained it at a press conference.
Citing US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, she noted that in August 2026 the average commercial price was 30.72 cents per kilowatt-hour in Puerto Rico, more than double the 14.47-cent US average, a difference of 112.3%. In the United States, the commercial rate ran about 20.3% below the residential rate that month, while in Puerto Rico it was about 16.5% above a residential average of 26.36 cents per kilowatt-hour.
She stressed these are August 2026 average prices by sector, not a uniform rate nor the October-December reference costs. Eurostat’s second-half 2025 indicators for the European Union placed non-domestic prices at 18.37 euro cents per kilowatt-hour, about 36.6% below the residential rate of 28.96 euro cents. The proposed working table would include the commercial sector, the Energy Bureau of the Public Service Regulatory Board, LUMA Energy, Genera PR and the Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO), and would review the full bill structure, the cost of serving each customer category, savings and financing alternatives, efficiency incentives and mechanisms for more predictable adjustments.
Morán Trinidad argued that unpredictable energy costs hinder businesses’ decisions on investment, hiring and pricing, and that relief could help contain consumer price increases.