Imminent increase coming

Consumers are facing an imminent increase in the cost for electrical inspection of their premises.

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Daryl Vaz sounded the warning as he gave an update to the House of Representatives on the newly created Government Electrical Regulator (GER), which became operations effective November 1 last year.

Vaz made the sobering revelation in Parliament that the current fees have artificially been kept low due to government subsidy, hinting that market conditions have made this impractical to continue.

He advised Parliament that the fees for inspections and to submit drawings to the government electrical regulator were last increased in 1991, 31 years ago. Inspection fees were calculated based on that 1991 Fees Schedule and varied based on the items installed.

Vaz pointed out that Cabinet and the Parliament of 2015 took a decision to privatise the electrical inspection function and that Parliament of 2020 presented no change to the fees schedule during the process of passing the new regulations for the GER.

According to Vaz, “we cannot subject private electrical inspectors to the mandatory requirement of having public liability insurance (which is expensive), increased fees for the application and licensing processes and then turn around and establish barriers to them providing their services at a cost that makes economic sense”.

Concerns about the fees schedule

He acknowledged concerns expressed from some quarters for consideration to be given for a Fees Schedule for inspection to be included in the new regulations. 

Vaz emphasised that the current fees schedule represents a significant subsidy across the spectrum of the electricity inspection function including inspection for a simple residential house, mid-size factory and apartment complex.

An example of the current inspection fees are as follows:

1.    $127.00 for a simple dwelling house with a 30 Ampere main breaker, 3 lights and 2 plugs;

2.    $16,340.00 for a medium size industrial factory with 415/240 Volt supply, 400 Ampere main breaker;

3.    $22,820.0 for a residential 20-unit apartment complex supplied by a Metre Centre with each apartment supplied with 110/220 volt 70 Ampere main breaker, 7 lights and 13 plugs;

4.    $1,500 for a typical JPS extension

5.    Between $500 and $1,000 for temporary installation.

According to Vaz, “this Government is not afraid to act to ensure that profitability is not excessive or is counter-productive to the performance of other national priorities such as reduction in household poverty, increasing access to safe electricity or increasing access to housing… . The regulator (GER), has also published the list of licensed inspectors, which will give consumers information to allow them to shop around and negotiate prices”.

He emphasised that increasing the available pool of private electrical inspectors and making information available to the consuming public are two sensible and rational responses by the regulator.

The minister made the point that what the country has experiencing is a very short-term reaction to the privatisation of the inspection function and that as the number of inspectors increase, the market will adjust and create a rational equilibrium price.

Vaz highlighted that ”the Government understands the general application of supply and demand as a function of price. In this instance, the available pool of licensed private electrical inspectors is small when compared to the average number of inspections carried out annually using GEI figures”.

At present, there are 61 licensed private electrical inspectors in the system now with the expectation of approximately 35,000 inspections annually, this is a ratio of 564 inspections to one inspector; an equivalent of two inspections per day, per inspector.

He was quick to point out that this is a significant improvement when compared to sixteen licensed Private Electrical Inspector in previous years.