A Saba Electric Company (SEC) employee reading the meters.

SABA – The burden of the sharp increase of more than 30% in the price of electricity since last year for consumers in Saba will be reduced to 10% thanks to a subsidy that the public entity Saba will make available to the Saba Electric Company (SECOND).

Due to rising fuel prices in the international market, the cost of generating electricity has increased significantly. If the fuel price increase is passed on to consumers, the electricity price would increase by 26.924% without the subsidy.
The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) in the Netherlands has set the new maximum tariff on July 1.
To help mitigate the steep price increase for Saba consumers, the SEC and state-owned entity Saba recently met to discuss the possibility of sharing the costs of lowering the electricity rate increase.
Subsequently, the public entity Saba decided to make a grant available to SEC to enable the company to reduce the price increase from 30% to 10%.
The tariff reduction through this subsidy will benefit all consumers and will be in place until the end of the year. The public entity Saba sees the electricity tariff subsidy as a poverty alleviation measure that benefits the whole community at a time when the prices of goods and services are rising rapidly around the world.
The idea is that the demand for fuel will decrease in the future when more renewable energy is generated by solar and wind power. Saba already generates a large part of its electricity demand via solar parks next to the airport.
In addition to the local government subsidy to SEC to reduce the price increase, additional help for low-income families in these difficult times will come from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor SZW and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate EZK in the Netherlands. .
These ministries recently announced that they would help low-income households in Saba, as well as Bonaire and St. Eustatius, with a one-time compensation of USD 850 per household to mitigate the effects of rising energy prices.
In total, the ministries have made available 4.4 million euros for the three islands. More information on this compensation will be shared soon.