Attorney and intervenor Tricia Watson is opposing Barbados Light & Power Company Ltd’s (BL& P) application for a regulatory exemption related to the fulfilment of some of its standards of service.
The former Opposition senator says her team has calculated that the level of related compensation that BL& P will avoid paying customers, if its force majeure (unforeseen circumstances) exemption was granted, was “conservatively” $2 million.
She also criticised the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) for receiving the application in August last year, but only making it public on January 17 and inviting comments from the public by yesterday.
BL& P has applied for
an FTC exemption from penalties, payment of customer compensation or other sanctions which may result from the disruption of electricity service caused by Hurricane Beryl last July.
Watson said her objections, which have been formally submitted to the FTC, detailed “the reasons why granting the exemption would not only be imprudent and biased, but also unlawful”.
“I also make detailed recommendations on how the FTC should deal with the [BL& P’s] application to not compensate consumers,” she added. (SC)
