#BTEditorial – Image is everything

It is fair to conclude that the island’s lone electricity supplier is in a battle to brighten its public image.

We certainly do not want to appear as though we are piling on at a time when the Barbados Light & Power Company (BLPC) is fighting many challenges on various fronts – but it’s not a start-up, it is a big company.

The power company is a major corporate player in Barbados with a history that is more than a century old. Ironically, there was a time when you could say no wrong about the electric company because of its stellar reputation.

The company was seen as responsive, well-run, reliable, and a responsible corporate citizen. What was also very important was that it was our own – Barbadian by name and nature.

This is not to say that BLPC did not endure its fair share of battles over the decades with intervenors and consumers over the company’s requests for rate increases. However, throughout every crisis, the company’s standing with Barbadians remained high, when compared to other corporate entities.

We know that Canadian energy giant Emera achieved controlling interest in the power company, in the main, through the decision of a previous administration to dispose of its substantial ownership stake in the company, as the country sought to build its store of revenue to run the economy.

Emera did not help itself by informing Barbadians it was applying for a rate increase in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when half of Barbados was struggling, and war was breaking in the Ukraine. The old folk say timing is everything.

While it has yet to get the full increase it has demanded, Barbadians who are known to quietly forget issues after nine days of contempt, have held onto some important pieces of information that were revealed during the sessions at the last rate hearing.

Included in those nuggets were the enormous profits sent to the Canadian parent and the absence of promised infrastructural investment after the last increase was granted.

We learned too that the company sought to recover from consumers the $252 000 it gave in charitable donations and sponsorship.

The company has not yet received the full increase it was demanding but has constantly reminded us that consistent quality service cannot be promised to Barbadian electricity consumers unless it gets the full increase.

All this has not gone down well with the public, despite the Government’s intervention to provide consumers with a significant but temporary cut in the Value Added Tax paid on electricity bills up to a certain usage.

As Barbadians lament the high cost of living, the company has put the public on notice again that it is seeking a rate adjustment on account of its need to invest approximately $600 million over the next seven years in battery storage in order to be ready for the Government’s carbon neutral energy goal by 2030.

Electricity bills for the average consumer with basic usage would increase by between $40 and $50. According to media reports, the Clean Energy Transition Rider (CETR) is the mechanism through which BLPC is seeking FTC approval to recover from customers a combined total revenue of $131.26 million over the next three years.

As expected, intervenors are not having it, with the Barbados Sustainable Energy Cooperative Society Ltd (Co-op Energy) head retired Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Brown, who is a former BLPC engineer writing directly to the minister of energy, strongly arguing against granting the company licences to install battery storage facilities.

Browne has argued BLPC has “no basis” to “automatically assume any rights to construct and run energy storage facilities”.

Throughout the BLPC bashing, local businessman, investor and engineer The Most Honourable Ralph Bizzy Williams has remained steadfast in his support of BLPC’s renewable energy policy.

It will be an interesting year ahead.