#BTEditorial – Depending on the regulator for cover

All eyes are on the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) as Barbadians await the responses of intervenors and the deliberations of the regulator to the application of Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) for a rate increase.

While the public is still in the dark about the finer details of the BL&P bid, the most important issue for Barbadians from every walk of life is that the monopoly electricity supplier wants a near 12 per cent increase. And they want it at a time when most of us can least afford.

An examination of householders’ electricity bills will reveal that the bulk of the final cost is actually in the fuel charge, something over which homeowners have little control.

The fuel charge can rise and fall, based on the cost at which the power company must purchase fuel from the sole importer, which happens to be a government-owned entity, the Barbados National Oil Company.

But it is the regulator, on whose shoulders will be the responsibility for approving this demand of the BL&P, turning down the application all together, or finding some mid-point at which the power supplier and the public can find tolerable.

There is no doubt that this rate application is generating much angst among citizens and business owners. It can easily be described as the most inopportune time to foist a utility hike on a pandemic-wary public.

The near 12 per cent hike being sought when the country is reeling from a deadly COVID-19 pandemic, makes the power company appear tone deaf and unsympathetic to the collective concerns of the public.

But on the other hand, some have also made the argument that now was indeed the best time for BL&P, which is owned by Canadian power giant Emera, to put its case before the FTC.

Why? By its own admission, the FTC says it is short of human resources at this time, even though it intended to treat the application as a top priority.

“With the commission being hamstrung in terms of human resources we have to prioritise what we do,” Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Marsha Atherley-Ikechi told this publication.

Some have suggested that when your “opponent” is at its weakest, you strike. Not that the FTC is the BL&P’s enemy, but the regulator certainly stands in the breach for ordinary citizens who require the state to act on their behalf and in their interest against corporate excesses.

It did not go unnoticed that the BL&P rate increase application came at the same time the FTC was advertising for someone to fill the role of CEO.

The fact that this agency is without a permanently appointed boss at such a critical juncture is a reason to worry. For such an important agency of Government and a critical regulator to be served by an acting head does not inspire confidence.

We are also concerned about the public’s representation at this time. Citizens seem to be yearning for a champion who can follow in the footsteps of the late University of the West Indies economist and public intervenor Dr Wendell McClean, who was Barbados’ modern-day David against the might of the powerful electricity company.

There appears to be some hope with the emergence of bold young voices such as attorney-at-law Tricia Watson who is drawing attention to many of the key issues that the regulators should be addressing.

In a recent radio discussion, she argued that the public deserved to know exactly what is contained in the BL&P application and there was no reasonable argument for not making the document public, with possible redaction of any sensitive corporate data.

Watson, who at one time was legal counsel for another utility company, Cable & Wireless, also highlighted the role of the Minister whom she said was a quasi-regulator, given his power under the law.

One of the most important questions raised by Watson related to the savings consumers were expected to experience from BL&P’s substantial investments in renewable energy.

At the same time, BL&P’s Director of Customer Solutions Kim Griffith-Tang How, a former legal counsel for the FTC, argued that BL&P was forced to make the application because of the lack of action by the FTC to the power company’s Clean Energy Transition Rider (CETR) application made in June 2020.

That application sought to recover millions of dollars invested in its five-year Clean Energy Transition Programme.

What is unfolding is a critically important process which will impact the lives of every citizen and business on the island.