The price of electricity has increased starting today, 1 November, from $0.7990 to $0.8316 per kWh, approved by the Electricity Commission.

Tonga Power Limited (TPL) Acting CEO, Steven ‘Esau said this morning that from July 2017 to October 2019 the electricity tariffs were held between 81.20 to 79.90 seniti per kWh.

This was despite the cost of fuel increasing steadily since 2018, from an average price of $1.2213 per litre in 2017 to an average price of $1.6458 per litre in 2019.

During this period, TPL used its dividends of $5.3 million to keep the tariff unchanged but could not recover the fuel costs totaling more than $9 million.

Steve said TPL was now using a new fuel tariff review model, which identified the price range (ceiling and floor price levels) for electricity in order to remain financially sound in the next financial year.

The government however, will continue to subsidize the first 100kWh consumed by all residential customers at a fixed rate of 70 seniti per kWh.

The next tariff review will be in December, and will be effective on 1 January 2020.