The new Feed-in-Tariff rates which were announced recently by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) to take effect on January 1, 2023, apply only to new applicants.
This clarification has come from Chief Executive Officer of the FTC Marsha Atherley-Ikechi, who noted that existing suppliers of energy to the national grid under the FIT initiative will continue to earn the old rates.
She made this clarification following a report by Barbados TODAY earlier this week, which suggested that the rates would apply across the board.
“If I am a customer with my house and I want to start the process today or even if I engage a supplier and I am putting in my information into the online portal at the Ministry of Energy, it will be those rates that are applicable at that point, which are the new rates. Persons who are already in the systems prior to [January 1, 2023] will get the old rates.
“Persons who already have systems, the rates that they applied for and are utilising will continue to apply. So we are not changing the rates that are already in existence. This only applies to the new people coming onto the system,” Atherley-Ikechi explained.
The new rates, however, mean that most new providers of power to the national grid from renewable energy sources up to one megawatt (MW) will now earn less per kilowatt hour (kWh) under the FIT programme than the existing energy providers.
At the same time, those new providers above 1 MW and up to 10 MW per kWh, now have the opportunity to earn more than existing providers of power from those size systems.
For the new applicants, effective January 1, 2023, the FIT rate for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems up to 10 kilowatts (kW) is 34.25 cents/kWh.
The FIT rate for solar systems above 10kW to 100kW is 35.75 cents/kWh; solar systems above 100kW to 250 kW is 34.75 cents/kWh; solar systems above 250 kW to 500 kW is 39.75 cents/kWh. Solar systems above 500kW to 1 MW will attract a rate of 34.25 cents per kWh.
The old rates for those sized systems remain in effect for the original providers. Those rates are 42.75 cents/kWh; 44.75 cents/kWh; 41.75 cents/kWh; 38.25 cents/kWh and 36.25 cents/kWh, respectively.
For the land-based wind systems up to 10 kW, new applicants will earn 36.75 cents/kWh and those above 10 kW up to 1 MW attract a rate of 45.75 cents/kW. The old rates of 39.75 cents per kWh and 38.25 cents/kWh, for existing energy providers to the national grid, will also remain in place.
In relation to solar PV above 1 MW and up to 5 MW, the FIT rate for new applicants is 26.75 cents/kWh and the rate for systems above 5 MW and up to 10 MW is 25.25 cents/kWh.
Meanwhile, the FIT rate for electricity produced from land-based wind technologies above 1 MW and up to 5 MW is 26.25 cents/kWh and rates for those systems above 5 MW and up to 10 MW is 25.24 cents/kWh.
The old rates for those systems also remain in effect for existing suppliers of energy to the national grid, at 23.25 cents/kWh; 21.75 cents/kWh; 22.25 cents/kWh and 20.25 cents/kWh, respectively.
Once the new applicants obtain their contract with the Barbados Light & Power Company it will remain in place for a period of 20 years.
