EARNING POWER

Potential large independent producers of renewable energy will soon have an idea as to the rates they could earn supplying power to the national grid.

Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Energy, Immigration, Telecommunications and Invest Barbados, Senator Darcy Boyce, stated that by mid-March, Cabinet will be discussing a paper on the prices of the various categories and installations of renewable energy utilised by these producers, before it is sent to the Fair Trading Commission.

“This will then give certainty to those persons looking to become large producers of renewable energy,” he said yesterday at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Welches, Maxwell office.

The senator also gave an update on the work being done on the licences.

“We have also done some work on the licensing process and the data that is required to treat with the large producers, and we expect that will be finalised by the end of March, and we will be able then to invite those large private independent power producers to put in bids for producing power by way of the intermittent power sources,” he stated.

Boyce said that later this year, there would be an extension of the external capacity – moving from 60 megawatts to 80 megawatts.

“With the prices set with the licensing process finalised, we expect that there would be good demand for that. In all of this, we have to ensure that the Light and Power is in position to do the length of contract for persons if they are going to go into large-scale investments, and work on that is also being done and we expect that this would reach Cabinet within the next week or two, so that there is the assurance that the utility is in position to deal with those persons who want to supply intermittent energy,” he noted. (JMB)