FTC finalising proposed rates for energy storage

Proposed rates for renewable energy storage in Barbados should be ready by the start of 2023.

Minister of Business Development and Senior Minister Coordinating the Productive Sector Kerrie Symmonds made that disclosure during debate on a Resolution to take note of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) Plan 2022 in the House of Assembly on Tuesday.

He disclosed that an international consultant had visited the island to help the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) finalise proposed rates for the battery storage grid which is needed to further build out the renewable energy sector.

“That modelling work has been completed. I am happy to say that the Fair Trading Commission has been furnished with proposed rates and, as I speak to you during the course of this debate, the Fair Trading’s Electricity Panel will be doing a review of the recommendations of the consultant.

“Once the Fair Trading Commission has been able to settle on what the proposed rates are going to be, then they [would] go out to the wider public, again in the greatest interest of fullest transparency, so that we can get their input before final decisions are made,” Symmonds said.

He expressed hope that by the end of year, the process of finalising all issues surrounding battery storage for renewable energy will be completed.

Symmonds used the opportunity to renew his plea to investors to diversify their portfolios in renewable energy generation, noting that wind energy was still underutilised on the island.

“It is an intermittent technology – today has been a rainy morning and we are into a rainy evening – and, so, there is not a lot of energy that has been generated by any of the photovoltaic panels in Barbados but it has also been a windy day. If investment had been made in respect to wind, then we may have had more energy being generated through renewable energy technology,” he pointed out.

Reiterating the importance of renewable energy storage, Minister Symmonds added: “Whether or not it has been by solar or by wind, we come to a point where we will have, because of the intermittent nature of the technology, to have storage.”
(SB)