Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business, Donville Inniss (left), shares a light moment with Opposition backbencher, Dwight Sutherland, at the BEC’s AGM Luncheon yesterday.
Managing Director of the Barbados Light and Power Company Limited (BL&P), Roger Blackman, says the utility company is pleased with the growth of the Renewable Energy Rider (RER) Programme.
His comments came yesterday afternoon as he spoke to the media, after delivering the feature address at the Barbados Employers’ Confederation’s Annual General Meeting Luncheon at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
“As you might recall, the Renewable Energy Rider Programme, which facilitates customers interconnected with the grid, is something that the utility proposed as far back as maybe 2010, and at the time when we proposed it the technology was not as advanced, it was not maybe as cost-effective, so it took a while for that to grow,” he explained.
Blackman said that in 2012, at the end of the pilot phase of the programme, the impact was negligible, but he indicated that over the last few years customers have embraced it, the technology has improved and the costs associated with putting RE systems in place have come down, and the programme has “started to take off”.
“In fact we’re at, as was mentioned earlier, 13 megawatts on the grid and growing at a rate of about one megawatt per year,” he said.
However, the managing director argued that the only way Barbados is going to see significant renewable energy penetration on the grid is for various parties to be involved. He made the point as he contended that it is not just the utility’s job alone to push RE. He is adamant that customers are going to have to participate in the process, so that the country can achieve that long-term goal of 100 per cent clean energy.
Blackman’s comments came as he explained that there are two arrangements in place for the solar system on the network – sale of excess arrangement and a buy all, sell all. He noted, however, that as the larger systems which make up most of the capacity generated are on a buy all, sell all arrangement, it is a win-win situation for the parties involved.
“It is revenue neutral for the utility because it is sold to the utility and then passed on to customers and is covered through the fuel charge on the bill. So customers benefit from the charge that has been set by the regulator,” he said.
He indicated that customers earn 41.6 cents for every kilowatt hour that is generated and sold back into the grid, and he suggested that the rate is one that should be attractive to interested customers.
Blackman added, “The way these systems are designed and set up, they are interconnected with the grid because solar systems you can’t dispatch them, you basically have to take the energy as it is produced. So, essentially as the energy is produced it goes into the grid, which is a common grid for the entire island… Basically, a significant portion of it is sold back into the grid. In some instances, some of it is used in the home first and only the excess is sold into the grid, but that isn’t the majority.” (JRT)