Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) will be teaming up with Government on a special project aimed at helping customers reduce their electricity bills and cut back on energy use.
The scheme, Sustainable Energy Framework for Barbados (SEFB), which is being spearheaded by Government, is expected to be implemented over the next five to ten years.
The SEFB will address two components – renewable energy and energy efficiency. According to BL&P marketing manager Stephen Worme, the SEFB is geared to the development of an overall energy policy.
Worme said the programme would allow them to install special monitors on some customers’ homes in order to give them “a better perspective” on how they were using power. He said it was expected to show customers where they needed to cut back on their energy use.
“It is more like a behavioural thing, looking where energy is being consumed and then, once we understand that situation, being able to cut back,” he said.
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that the SEFB project will be financed from the US$10 million smart energy fund and will be done in different phases.
The first phase is expected to come into effect at the start of the last quarter of this year.
Sinckler said Government was currently looking at “retrofitting businesses and all Government buildings” with solar voltaic panels.
