Barbados Light & Power Company (BLPC) executives have criticised a lengthy delay in rate hearings, urging the utility regulator to speed up the process of its recent application for millions of dollars of investment in battery storage.
Director of Customer Solutions Kim Griffith-Tang How told Barbados TODAY that she believed the time
had come to bring the utility regulation process in line with the government’s planned changes to the law governing electricity supply.
Just as lawmakers made a number of recent amendments to the Electric Light and Power Act and developed an Electricity Supply Act, the regulations governing review and other processes should also be reviewed and updated, she told reporters during a media call on Wednesday.
“I would say that this would be a good time to review those regulations,” said Griffith-Tang How, a former officer in the Fair Trading Commission (FTC).
“That suite of legislation was put in place in 2001. I think we can all agree that things have progressed significantly since 2001. The world is a different place and so the regulatory space is a different place. I think the FTC suite of legislation and regulations that support the sector, it would be timely to do a review of that. It is always good from time to time when you have such critical legislation, to review and see if there are necessary updates. In that regard, I agree.”
Last month, spokesman for the Coalition of Cooperatives, retired Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne called on authorities to urgently review and modernise the utility regulation process.
He said: “The very simple fact that it has taken nearly two years to fail to adjudicate a straightforward rate review request from the utility, is enough to condemn the whole process to nonsense.”
Browne had argued that the delay in the rate hearing was happening “in a world where prices, trends, shipping costs and other critical factors have been changing overnight”.
“It is obvious that an urgent review and modernisation of the utility regulation process in Barbados is required, and with immediate urgency,” said Browne.
In addition to awaiting word from the regulator for an application of a rate increase of 11.9 per cent that was made in October 2021, the utility company is currently awaiting a decision in order to make an investment in battery storage as it races against time and the installation and connection of renewable energy systems to the national grid.
BLPC has made an application for the investment of about $400 million in battery storage through a Clean Energy Transition Rider (CETR) mechanism.
Managing Director Roger Blackman stressed that “having investments reviewed and approved in a timely manner… allows us to keep the pace the momentum going”.
Agreeing that a review of the regulatory processes was necessary, Blackman said: “The CETR is just that sort of creative new thinking around what do we do between lengthy and expensive rate cases, recognising how quick our transition is required and the amount of investment and change required. The CETR was designed to address that very issue.”
(MM)
