Barbados Renewable Energy Project in Jeopardy as BLPC and FTC Clash Over Battery Energy Storage Systems

A renewable energy project worth as much as $400 million hangs in the balance as Barbados Light & Power Company (BLPC) and the Fair Trading Commission remain at odds over Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), an industry insider warned Friday.

Khalid Grant, director of project development for renewable energy developer BlueCircle Energy, told Barbados TODAY that the impasse could jeopardise the development of the renewable energy sector on the island.

“The quickest way to get battery storage onto the grid and to unlock the current deadlock that we’re in, is for Light & Power to provide the batteries via the CETR [Clean Energy Transition Rider] mechanism,” Grant said. “I would encourage Light & Power and the FTC to engage more closely and talk through why the full 90 megawatts (MW) is necessary and the FTC can explain why only 15 megawatts was approved, then we can get closer to actually getting systems on the grid.”

In May, the FTC approved just 15 MW of the 90 MW in battery storage that Light & Power had requested, rejecting the remaining 75 MW of storage capacity. The decision has left the industry in limbo, with approximately 32 MW worth of projects already built and financed but unable to connect to the grid, Grant said.

Grant argued that the approved 15 megawatts only serves to stabilise the grid but does not actually help new projects to connect.

“There may have been a thought perhaps within the Fair Trading Commission that maybe giving the utility 15 MW would help to allow some projects to be connected, but it has not resulted in any new projects being able to be connected,” he explained.

If the full amount of battery storage was approved, consumers would have seen their bills increased by $41 over a three-year period. But, with only a sixth of the amount granted, it is unclear what that increase will look like.

“There are roughly 32 MW worth of projects that are built, financed or people have paid for out of their own pocket or they have taken loans from the bank for and these have not been connected to the grid,” he said. “Perhaps the fastest way would be for the FTC and Light & Power to engage a little bit closer and find out if they (the FTC) can perhaps revisit that CETR decision or perhaps have issued a new decision based on the new information.”

The gridlock affects a significant number of renewable energy initiatives. Currently, about 207 licences have been granted to approved private renewable energy projects, with an additional 333 awaiting approval. For more than a year, the industry’s growth has been hampered by an overwhelming number of applicants, coupled with the grid capacity of 100 megawatts being reached without adequate storage solutions.