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Barbados Light & Power Company Files Application for Clean Energy Transition Rider, Potentially Resulting in Monthly Electricity Bill Increases
Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL&P) has applied for regulatory approval to recover costs from a battery storage installation, potentially resulting in a $41 increase in monthly electricity bills for homeowners. The approval is separate from the previous rate increase decision.
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Originally published by www.nationnews.com (opens in new tab)
Householders could see their monthly electricity bills increase by $41 over a three-year period starting next year, if Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL&P) gets regulatory approval to recover costs from planned major battery storage installation and associated investments.
This is detailed in an October 5, 2023 BL&P Application For Pre-Approval Of Investments And Cost Recovery Through The Clean Energy Transition Rider submitted to the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) and the accompanying October 4, 2023 sworn affidavit of BL&P manager of regulatory affairs Adrian Carter.
If approved, the higher electricity costs for consumers would be separate from the substantive rate increase application on which the FTC issued its decision and order on February 15, 2023. The Commission is currently considering a BL&P application to review and vary aspects of this ruling, having held a public hearing on the matter in August.
The Clean Energy Transition Rider (CETR) is the mechanism through which BL&P is seeking regulatory approval to recover from customers a combined total revenue of $131.26 million between 2024, 2025 and 2026 for its first Clean Energy Transition Plan (CETP) Project (CETP Project 1).
FTC chief executive officer Dr Marsha Atherley-Ikechi told the media on October 27 that “the basic tenets of the [CETP] were agreed upon and approved a few months ago. What the utility has applied for is the coverage of storage under that programme”.
Carter said in his affidavit accompanying the application: “A CETR rate of $0.1386 per kilowatt hour is estimated to recover the revenue requirement associated with the CETP Project 1. The rate impact related to the total investment for a typical residential customer using 250 kilowatt-hours per is estimated as an increase of approximately $41 or 21 per cent on their monthly bill compared to current rates.”
The total revenue requirement BL&P is seeking via the CETR in its application to the FTC for $684.89 million in investments is comprised of 90 megawatts (MW) of battery energy storage systems ($115.15 million), independent power producers’ interconnection ($8.54 million), synchronous condensers ($6.85 million), automatic generation control ($540 679), and the distributed energy resources aggregation and control platform ($167 429). BL&P managing director Roger Blackman told the media during an October 25 briefing that the batteries and related equipment would “work together to smooth out the supply from renewable energy sources that are connected to the grid”.
