DECISION ON THE BARBADOS LIGHT & POWER COMPANY LIMITED’S RENEWABLE ENERGY RIDER

The Fair Trading Commission has completed its review of the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited’s request to implement the Renewable Energy Rider (RER) on a permanent basis with new terms and conditions and has issued its Decision FTC/URD/DECRER 2013-02 dated August 9, 2013.

The RER was designed to facilitate the sale of excess electricity to the grid by customers generating electricity for their own consumption using solar photovoltaic or wind renewable energy systems up to a maximum of 150kW. The RER is not meant to be used by commercial entities as a revenue generating enterprise. These entities are considered to be Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for which a different legal regime is required.

The Commission has determined that:

1. The RER credit of 1.6 times the fuel clause adjustment (FCA) is representative of the BL&P’s avoided fuel cost when consideration is given to, among other things, the type, quantity and cost of the fuel utilised to generate electricity, the generation mix, the cost at peak load and the renewable energy generating capacity limit;

2. The individual customer capacity limit of 1.5 times the customer’s current usage is appropriate up to a maximum capacity of 150kW;

3. The capacity limit for distributed intermittent renewable energy generation shall be increased to 7MW. When 5MW capacity is reached, 1MW of the remaining 2MW is to be reserved for domestic, employee and general service customers;

4. The billing arrangement shall be based on the sale of excess electricity to the grid.

This Decision can be viewed on the link below or obtained from the Commission’s office at “Good Hope”, Green Hill, St. Michael between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Mondays to Fridays.

Decision on The Barbados Light & Power Company Limited's Renewable Energy Rider [pdf 666k]

Dated the 9th day of August 2013

Peggy Griffith

Chief Executive Officer