Residential customers of the National Power and Light Company (CNFL in Spanish) can expect to pay approximately 4.7 percent more on their electricity bills in May.

According to an official press release by the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Spanish acronym: ARESEP), the CNFL had requested an increase of 9 percent for residential service and 7.76 percent for street lighting and other public illumination services. Upon request by the ARESEP, the CNFL conducted a survey of their operating costs and reduced their initial request by half.

The substantial difference from the initial request to the final approval of the increase came after the ARESEP asked the public utility company to take a second look at their cash reserves and to consider operation costs versus gross income.

The increase is between 2 and 4 colones per kilowatt-hour. The average family consumes about 200 kWh per month, which means that they can expect their next electricity bill to go up from 11,200 to 11,600 colones.

Cutting Down on Residential Electricity Consumption

CNFL and ICE have been involved in the promotion of energy efficiency and electricity savings over the last few years. The energy-saving tips have been compiled on ICE’s website. Some of the tips include:

• Hanging laundry out to dry in the sun instead of using electric dryers
• Leaving a clearance of at least 10 centimeters between the back of refrigerators and the kitchen wall
• Using 20-watt and 1200 lumen fluorescent light bulbs that consume 3 kWh per month
• Learning to take advantage of residual heat when cooking
• Using thermal containers to keep food and liquids warm during the day

You can also figure out how much energy your home appliances burn at ICE’s website.