March hearings in Light & Power-FTC lawsuit likely

Barbadian consumers may have to wait until next month to find out when the High Court will start hearing evidence in the lawsuit brought against the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) by the Barbados Light and Power Company Ltd (BLPC), Barbados TODAY has learned.

The power company is suing the commission for rejecting its request for an 11.9 per cent electricity rate hike and an 8.79 per cent return on its rate base. The BLPC has accused the FTC of making significant errors in law and policy which it said were affecting its ability to serve its customers.

The unparalleled legal objection came last December after the chair of the commission’s rate hearing panel Dr Donley Carrington told Barbadians they would learn before Christmas about the revised electricity rates, stressing that it would not be the 11.9 per cent increase the company wanted.

Just over two months since the utility announced its intention to sue the regulator, a legal source closely involved in the case, speaking to Barbados TODAY on condition of anonymity, gave an update.

“Right now, we are just doing administrative stuff. We had to file records and stuff. So, the first hearing is in March but most likely nothing is happening on that date other than directions as to how things would go. I don’t think it is going to be like a hearing date; it would be more like management of the case . . . – ’I want this file by this time’ and that sort of stuff. So that will determine a date for the actual hearing,” the source explained.

The BLPC has said the legal appeal was necessary to defend “fair and reasonable legal standards” governing the industry and accuses the FTC of making “significant legal, jurisdictional, and procedural errors” in its decision.

The FTC said in December: “We feel that we are left with no other option than to continue efforts to resolve serious errors of law related to the rate application. Such mistakes have major consequences on our ability to adequately serve our customers.”

After two years of involvement in the FTC’s rate review process, BLPC, owned by the Canadian energy conglomerate Emera since 2010, expressed disappointment that a reasonable outcome could not be achieved. It charged that the regulator retroactively changed settled decisions, contradicted government policy on energy storage and made arbitrary adjustments.

Among those “settled decisions”, the utility said, was the treatment of its Self-Insurance Fund and accumulated depreciation and taxes in a manner that is “punitive” to the company several years after such settled decisions were made.

BLPC also accused the FTC of “confiscation of prudent investments already made by Light & Power in good faith and already in service currently providing benefits to customers, and arbitrary and inconsistent adjustments to the test year”.

Declaring it was committed to providing the best possible service, the company said it looked forward to a resolution in the High Court.
(EJ)