The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) has just completed a public meeting of minds which could help shape Barbados’ use of the sun’s freely available blessings to lighten the economic burden of an increasing loss of foreign exchange to oil imports.
It is no secret that both political parties, business, industry and citizens stand to benefit from reduced electricity bills if renewable energy is used to the maximum to replace a seemingly unbridled oil import bill that was $844.5 million last year.
But after a two-year pilot project that allowed both the Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) businesses and consumers to gain experience from adopting mainly roof-based, sun-powered electricity, the parties were found to be as near in agreement on proceeding as a swim from Bridgetown to the Thames in Britain.
The handful of respondents spoke passionately and authoritatively about seizing the opportunity offered by photovoltaic-generated energy where PV panels are placed on buildings to trap the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity for domestic and business purposes.
The respondents wanted a six-fold increase in the use of alternative energy over the grid run by the electricity company. The BL&P, which was recently acquired by Canadian company Emera said: “No”. Let it stay at five Megawatts. The seven respondents, who included Ralph “Bizzy” Williams, a practical pioneer in PV-generated energy, said the rate of remuneration to compensate for investment in such systems was extremely low and investors needed a break-even figure. BL&P said it should remain at the two-year-old rate.
When the seven respondents argued for monthly payments for electricity sent to the grid which helps the power company lower its costs and increase efficiency rather than twice a year payments the BL&P face on regulatory matters, Stephen Worme said: “No”.
And the case was put by the two parties along similar, diametrically-opposed lines, sometimes humorously, but with the clear economic and social benefits and shortcomings from one argument or the other not far away.
BL&P argued that it was a pilot project and the grid needed to be protected to ensure quality service was maintained, hence five Megawatts was adequate. Allow for more research and study, suggested Stephen Worme, while intervenors said failure to seize the opportunity and make necessary, substantial changes would kill what is an emerging sector that has huge potential to stabilize the energy side of the economy and touch the pockets of citizens in a positive way with reduced and possibly no energy costs.
Analysis by myself and Williams Industries Ltd shows that what the power company is insisting on will contribute less than one per cent of national consumption, hence the case for the six-fold increase in what could be used on the power grid.
At the end of the session everyone will be looking to the Fair Trading Commission to help determine what is a matter of huge economic importance for this country.
Though small in numbers with most of the major business and industry associations absent, the intervenors survived a friendly barrage of questions, something I have never witnessed in a regulatory session, to convince the audience that their arguments were compelling.
They essentially argued that these are not times to be stuck in the mud and rain of a Russian Raputista, where the wheels of progress sink deeper and deeper into the earth.
There is indeed an abundance of light to show Government, businesses and ordinary citizens the way forward, if only we can see the sun.
• Hallam Hope is a long-standing consumer rights advocate.