Super Value President Debra Symonette said yesterday the food giant has invested heavily in a solarization project, which she said will hopefully offset the increases expected with Bahamas Power and Light’s (BPL) announcement that it will incrementally increase its fuel surcharge each quarter by 4.3 cents for high consumers.
For customers that consume more than 800 kWh per month, the fuel surcharge will increase to 14.8 cents/kWh, reflected in the November billing period.
In December, it will rise to 19.1 cents/kWh, then in March rise again to 23.3 cents/kWh, and peak at 27.6 cents/kWh before falling to 25 cents/kWh in September and back down to 18 cents/kWh in December 2023.
The rise in the BPL fuel charge comes as Super Value has already been grappling with securing the most affordable food items given supply chain challenges and record inflation.
Symonette said the company is only in the beginning stages of the multi-million solar operation but refrained from saying how much has been invested.
“Well, it’s certainly going to cause our bills to increase; and eventually, if there are any increases in prices at the business, it will have to trickle down to the customer,” she told Guardian Business yesterday following BPL’s announcement.
“However, we’re going to do our best to try to alleviate the increase with solar. We’re trying to put solar in all of the stores and so, hopefully, that will keep the bills down.”
Super Value has already cut its energy bill at its warehouse by approximately 40 percent by making that facility partially solar.
The aim is to have all of its 13 location’s complete by early next year.
“We were hoping by the end of the year but that’s a bit optimistic, so probably by the beginning or middle of next year,” she said.
“We’ve already done the project with our warehouse and we saw a significant decrease in the bill.”
Earlier this week, Super Value Owner Rupert Roberts said he expects consumers won’t begin to see an easing of already high food prices until the second quarter of 2023.
Between then and now, the company said it will do it’s best not to pass on too much of the burden of these external factors to customers.
“If we can get some relief from solar and inflation steadies out, we [and] our customers will be fortunate to see some relief,” Symonette added.
Last week, the Bahamas National Statistical Institute released its latest index which showed a seven percent increase in consumer prices year over year at the end of July.
July itself represented a major increase over the previous few months with a 1.5 percent increase.
