APUA Probes Electricity Under-Billing by Major Businesses
The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) is investigating reports that several major commercial customers, including supermarkets, have been paying electricity bills lower than those of ordinary households, a government spokesperson confirmed on Friday.
Director-General of Communications Maurice Merchant said Cabinet was told that “some large businesses are paying electricity bills that some households are paying,” describing the discovery as a clear indication that “something irregular is happening.”
He explained that APUA has begun installing new tamper-proof metering systems to prevent manipulation of the utility’s equipment and ensure accurate readings.
“The minister indicated that APUA is currently working towards installing particular systems that will prevent any tampering of its equipment,” Merchant said during the post-Cabinet media briefing.
The initiative follows earlier findings by the Ministry of Utilities that certain companies were under-reporting their electricity usage, depriving the authority of expected revenue. Merchant said the upgrade of meters is intended not only to stop the irregularities but also to recover lost income. “I think that is all part of the plan,” he noted.
No names or numbers were disclosed, but officials said the situation had become “an eye-opener” for the Cabinet, which has called for tighter oversight of commercial energy consumption.
The new meters are expected to form part of a broader effort to modernize APUA’s billing and monitoring systems as the government moves to improve transparency and reduce revenue leakages across state agencies.
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APUA is stealing from poor people for years and they don’t care to do anything about it. I never hear Cabinet talk about that.
You all need to compensate poor people.
While APUA is stealing from poor people rich people is stealing for from APUA and the circle continue.
Lang, Lang time me believe that ah happen and on top of that them ah kill the people with heavy prices. Bring dong de hammer pon dem, no kay how big dem be
Is not now they supposed to do this!!
But they also need to check out personal homes too. Plenty people out there messing with electricity and hooking up air conditioners before the lines meet their meters.
Yes I said it and we know it’s true so you all can come for me all you want so lemme just go braid my hair….
@hmmm…
Tell us how
@Ahhh bayyyy you sound so F$&ked up who go come for you like tou never finish primary school a sudden tou want say
This been happening for years now. Corruption and graft is high at every level of society in Antigua and Barbuda. And where it is found out and known, inducements are given in order to silence people. It’s almost a way of life nowadays. Everybody knows how to beat the system.
Simply put, if the APUA had a power factor penalty agreement for large consumers it would be a different situation where they cannot under perform.
But it is also a two way street because APUA doesn’t have a dependable power supply, so during power suppression what recoups the losses to the APUA? Is it historical billing estimation?
The APUA has got to improve and advance it service delivery in the first instance, carry out work on the line energized, even the waterlines are by pass in some countries to repair the pipes so water service is not interrupted to customers, on the mentioning of water, there are hot water steam service in other countries that is maintained by workmen safely much less to regular cold water.
The electricity side of it need great advancement so that their is no power outages that affect all function of services to the the consumers, they need to get into hotline work, been trained and experience in that field I would propose it as a way of solving even this under reading of meters, because when APUA suppress the power frequently especially on high demand commercial customers, their motor start up amps to run will dramatically increase and deter the customer to use APUA power and instead run on generator constantly to protect their equipment, there is a galvanize manufacturing business, that to this day the APUA can’t get them to apply for a 3 phase service for their equipment, they make arguments about power factor and frequency and plus or minus voltage drop and gets away technically though I suspect they are politically connected.
The APUA needs a hands on visionary electricity manager that is not just job entitled because of political connection but one that can do the work physically and not just a romanticize CEO.
Long time poor people paying excessive amount for utilitie bills ,take from the poor and give to the rich!!!
I don’t feel sorry for apua,all they do are give poor householld high bill and when you go to them all they give some excuse or the meter read early and the next month same high bill again.i think it’s high time politicians should pay bills..
Start with all the Arab used tyre sellers. They have been bringing in and installing batteries from Turkey and bypassing APUA. And I was amused to hear the PM say that the second most corrupt Minister in the government is who told him about the electricity scam. To find a Minister more corrupt that this one you need to head to St. Paul.
@Hazel Roberts…quick question, where does Solar Power fits into the equation, and what effect could this have on the billing issue?
Jumbee Picknee aka Ras Smood
De’ole Dutty Peg🦶🏿Garrat_Bastard
Vere Edwards
@ras mood: solar power does the opposite of what you think, which is you believe you cut your power consumption to APUA, but solar power only helps to stabilize the private generator company plant that Apua contracts to supply power, that is nuisance tripping from transients is negated because of the power you inject online in a grid tie system that the APUA has encourage customers to do, so you are not really running a battery powered inverter solar system. and in any case the APUA signed an agreement that regardless of what they have to pay monthly for certain fixed megawatts hours per month, so if we were to all use generator and inverter and disconnect from the the APUA mains, they will still recoup the same amount of monies they charge customers through estimation, after all the company has its commitment to this private power generation agreement plus loans and salary and rents to pay to different landlords. Only a utility commission and a board can regulate APUA and postpone some of its unprofitable decisions like renting buildings because of political connections. This solar power thing is meant to fool people into believing that they would evade APUA exorbitant bills but it’s not true, they will always have the control, they will say they providing you with special meter to sell power back to them, but do you think if 80% of Antiguans was to sell back power to APUA they would allow that when they have that sign contract from the private power company? Until they APUA really operates as a statutory body and the minister stop sitting at APUA using it as a cash cow nothing will change, the politicians are attracted to sit at APUA because of the volume of cash that moves through that company daily. And APUA is not allowed to develop quality policies for the customers, only to carry out political agreements of renting a comrade property or loans or leave APUA generator derelict so they can contract private power generation etc.
@Hazel Roberts…
Tk U! I appreciate your honest and professional response. As they say, the pangs and pains to the poor unsuspecting consumer who is always caught in the middle and muddle, of commercialism.
I figured out many moons ago, they lied to me by telling me, that a coin which is a cylinder has two sides. Actually, it has three, as in two circles and a parallelogram.
Using a coin as an analogy of the sufferings of poor people. When a coin 🪙 is flipped, to determine the [winner], of a #coin_toss, no one calls the edge (the
parallelogram) they call ‘heads’ or ‘tails,’ the circle(s).
The circles are like the political party’s and the parallelogram is the People, and they are ALWAYS squeezed in the middle while head or tail wins.
The SHITstem is the beast devouring HUEmans for its nutritious meals.
Jumbee_Picknee aka Ras Smood
De’ole Dutty Peg🦶🏿Garrat_Bastard
Vere Edwards
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