Puerto Rico Senators Joanne M. Rodríguez Veve, an independent at-large senator, and Ángel Toledo López filed a bill to create the Electric System Rate Stabilization Fund, a reserve to cushion extraordinary increases in electricity bills. The fund would be held by the Treasury Department (Hacienda), not the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA (AEE), or PREPA), and could only be used for bill credits.
It could not pay PREPA’s debts, its bankruptcy costs or any agency’s expenses. The mechanism would activate only when the fuel purchase adjustment rises two cents or more per kilowatt hour from one quarter to the next, or when the Energy Bureau declares a supply or generation emergency. Credits would cover up to half of the increase, and no more than one third of the fund could be spent in a single quarter.
Money would come from legislative appropriations, 10% of the General Fund’s annual surplus and fines collected by the Energy Bureau, including penalties on noncompliant contractors and fuel suppliers. The Energy Bureau would have 120 days to launch the fund, which would be audited by the Comptroller’s Office and report to the Legislature every six months.
The bill assigns no money from the current budget and was designed, the authors say, to avoid conflicts with the federal PROMESA law and creditors’ rights. In October, the typical residential bill rose about $42.27 a month, from $228.59 to $270.86, or 18.5% in one quarter. In 2022, after a 16.8% increase, both chambers passed Senate Bill 728, which then-Governor Pedro Pierluisi vetoed on October 12.
The authors say the veto was over transferred PREPA receivables tied to its Title III bankruptcy. They say the government has since distributed over $2.2 billion in budget surpluses; a tenth would have yielded over $220 million.