Electricity users will perceive a discount on their bills from January 2017, due to lower thermal generation sources that use of hydrocarbons such as diesel, kerosene or bunker to produce electricity.
The decrease approved by the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) in the cost per generation of thermal energy, applied by the different distribution companies, is -5.41% on average.
The country produces mainly hydropower electricity. However, when this is insufficient to meet domestic demand, which happens mainly during the summer, other sources must be used.
Since 2012, the Regulatory Authority has implemented the methodology known as Variable Cost of Fuel, which calculates the cost of generating thermal energy for each of the electricity distribution companies on a quarterly basis.
The mayor of Energy, Mario Mora, said that there has been a major effort to reduce generation from fossil fuels, which has been partly replaced with cheaper, imported energy from the Regional Electricity Market.