Jordan will raise electricity prices as of next month to cover the rising burden of imported fuel costs after loss of regular Egyptian gas supplies, officials said on Monday. Jordan's total imported energy bill has jumped by at least 60 percent last year to around $4.5 billion after a pipeline that carries Egyptian gas to Jordan was blown up 10 times since the start of the Egyptian uprising last year.
It has been forced to import more fuel oil to compensate for Egyptian gas that previously covered nearly eighty percent of its electricity generation. The explosions have sometimes led to weeks-long shutdowns along the pipeline that also supplies Israel, run by Egypt's gas transport company Gasco, a subsidiary of the national gas compnay EGAS.
Jordan's Electricity Regulatory Authority, which sets tariffs to local generating companies, said the prices hikes that will be implemented from the first of February and start from 9 to 17 percent will affect household consumers whose monthly consumption exceeds 600 kilowatt hours per month. A majority of the country's household consumers usage is below that level, it said. Corporate electricity rates will also go up between 8 to 15 percent depending on usage with consumers with less than 1200 kilowatt hours per month exempted. Large industrial firms that consume almost a third of total consumption will also see their bill rise by 16 percent.
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