Hearing examiner orders LUMA to clarify revenue requirement in rate-setting process.

Scott Hempling, the hearing examiner for the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau in its basic utility rates review process (LinkedIn)

By THE STAR STAFF

A hearing examiner for the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) ordered LUMA Energy on Thursday to correct or confirm key financial filings after consultants identified inconsistencies in the company’s proposed annual revenue requirement -- an essential element of the PREB’s ongoing effort to revise basic utility rates on the island.

The PREB is currently conducting Puerto Rico’s first comprehensive base-rate review in more than a decade, a process that will determine how much customers pay for the operation and maintenance of the electrical system. The annual revenue requirement submitted by LUMA, along with related filings from legacy power plants operator Genera PR and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), forms the foundation of the new rate structure the PREB must evaluate and ultimately approve.

Against that backdrop, the hearing examiner, Scott Hempling, said LUMA’s Jan. 9, 2026 filing -- submitted as Exhibit 1106 -- may not accurately reflect athe official figures the PREB is legally required to adjudicate.

“It is not clear to me that this Exhibit 1106 is now accurate,” the examiner wrote, pointing to discrepancies involving both Genera PR’s final revenue requirement and PREPA’s Feb. 23 filing, which outlines ratepayer-funded obligations for HoldCo, HydroCo, the retirement system, and pension funding.

Although Genera’s final numbers appear as Annex 3 in LUMA’s submission, the examiner noted they “were not fully incorporated” into Annex 1, the Rate Review Filing Schedules. Meanwhile, PREPA’s updated revenue requirement was never included in LUMA’s January schedules and has not yet been admitted into evidence.

To reconcile those differences, the order includes a spreadsheet prepared by PREB consultants that attempts to calculate the official base-rate revenue requirement using the most up‑to‑date numbers. The examiner instructed LUMA to review the spreadsheet and respond directly.

“Confirm that this presentation is correct; or provide a substitute document that is correct, explaining the differences,” the examiner wrote.

LUMA must also update and refile its revised revenue requirement schedules to incorporate both PREPA’s February clarifications and Genera’s revisions.

A 2025 PREB resolution requires all spreadsheet filings to be fully transparent, with formulas unlocked, no external links, and all calculations contained within the workbook itself. To ensure compliance, the examiner ordered LUMA to refile Exhibit 1106 “as a complete, self‑contained workbook … in which all worksheets are visible, all external links are replaced with static values, and no cell … depends on data from any file or source outside the workbook.”

The hearing examiner also asked LUMA to confirm whether the total base‑rate revenue requirement listed on page 113 of its Initial Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) brief -- $2,896,493,133 -- remains valid. If not, LUMA must submit an errata.

The order stresses that the instructions are not an invitation for argument but a procedural step needed to ensure completeness and accuracy before the PREB issues its final determination.

“My goals are solely to have in the April 16 Order an accurate presentation of the ARR that the Energy Bureau is legally bound to adjudicate, and to have in the evidentiary record the documentary sources for that number,” the examiner said.

LUMA has until next Monday at 5 p.m. to resubmit the corrected materials.