Cummins: Alliances, int’l expertise to help tackle energy storage challenges

Barbados is setting about tackling its renewal energy storage challenges by forming alliances and engaging international expertise on the ground in Bridgetown, says Minister of Energy and Business Development Senator Lisa Cummins.

The country will also be moving to competitive procurement to build out its storage resource capabilities.

Cummins told this to the Senate on Wednesday as she outlined how this country was approaching its lack of access to battery storage to support its renewable energy efforts.

Outlining that Barbados had high ambitions which had now “exceeded where we projected to be”, Senator Cummins said the country’s policies have now pushed it to a place where it has 450 megawatts of solar photovoltaic (PV) in the pipeline in a country which currently has a single

bulk storage facility with a 100 MW capacity.

Regarding competitive procurement, Cummins said it was developed in consultation with the Inter-American Development Bank. This approach, she added, had resulted in initial expressions of interest and a request for a proposal.

She noted that it was not an overnight decision and dismissed suggestions that the Government was on a “mad rush” with its approach. In fact, she said, the effort has been to find the most competitive pricing.

Cummins said up to October 2023, fuel imports had reached $828 million. The rising prices impact the cost of energy and the cost of living.

“We now are in a position where we have to find that balance between fossil fuel imports, the impact on the import bill, the impact on the cost of living and how we can reduce the prices.”

Cummins said competitive pricing on storage is not something that can be taken lightly, especially since no one wants to add to already high costs.

She said the framework being facilitated by the amendment, is for renewable energy systems up to 10 megawatts (MW) to continue to be overseen by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC). Systems above 10 MW will go to competitive procurement, she explained.
The process will be managed by a globally-recognised firm out of Argentina.

Speaking during debate on the Utilities Regulation Bill (Amendment) 2023, Minister Cummins said that Barbados had also formed an association with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) which will afford this country potential access to grant and concessionary funding and a “seat at the table” that would advance its renewable energy agenda. GEAPP, she explained, is a philanthropic grouping backed by three major entities – the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ikea Fund and the Bezos Earth Fund – which help countries confronting difficulties similar to those experienced by Barbados.

“Barbados was the first country to participate in GEAPP and through GEAPP. It allows Barbados to be part of a pool arrangement and to get to the front of the queue in partnership to be able to access battery storage from the leading manufacturers in the world.

“…The alliance with GEAPP allows us therefore to be able to engage in pooled procurement and to engage directly with world leaders in storage technologies to be able to access world cutting-edge technology. We needed to build relationships with international partners. We have not

attempted to do this in our own right,” she told the Senate, noting that Barbados does not manufacture this technology and relies on imports to satisfy its needs.

The Leader of Government Business in the Upper Chamber told her colleagues that the Cabinet had also agreed that in the partnership with Rockefeller, there would be “embedded” here, a world-class storage expert for a year, paired with junior experts in the Ministry and the FTC to be able to build local capacity.

“The notion of paying consultants to come from overseas all the time goes against the grain of local content development,” she told the Senate. “We have to be able to use the skills we have and take advantage of countries which have done this identical work before us.”

Cummins said that collaborative resources should be in place in January 2024.
(SP)