A new Electricity Supply Act is expected to be in place this year.
Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, shared this news today, as she explained that the new legislation would allow for standard form power purchase agreements.
“This will allow for a complete transformation in the way in which our electricity market is regulated for the first time in decades,” Senator Cummins said.
She made the comments as she delivered the feature address at the Barbados Energy Storage Solutions Forum, at the Hilton Barbados Resort, Needham’s Point, St. Michael.
In outlining the stage Barbados is at and its plans, the Minister told the gathering that 3.31 megawatt of solar photovoltaic systems had already been installed on government-owned buildings. She added that officials were currently assessing 100 more buildings to increase that capacity.
“The Cabinet has made a decision that all new government vehicles must be electric or hybrid. Loans to travelling officers for the purchase of vehicles have been increased to facilitate the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles….
“The Government has also invested in 49 electric buses with a view to purchasing 10 more. And in our Ministry, we are already in discussions about the possibility of expanding that fleet even further,” she pointed out.
Senator Cummins said a commitment had been made that there must be a minimum of 30 per cent local ownership in all renewable energy projects.
In addition, she stated, all homeowners had been granted a ‘right to renewable energy’, which is a guaranteed ‘spot’ on the grid with little administrative red tape. She noted that tax rebates were offered to individuals and companies installing renewable energy systems.
“This has resulted in a massive surge in uptake, over 80MW in solar photovoltaic systems, one megawatt in wind, five MW in battery storage renewable energy on the grid and over 400 electric vehicles on the road,” she disclosed.
The Minister indicated that her Ministry would be mapping, on a 20-year trajectory, what the renewable energy jobs in the future would look like based on the wind, solar and hydrogen energy mix.
She said her Ministry would also be undertaking a further update of the 2020 to 2030 National Energy Plan and the 2021 Integrated Resource and Resilience Plan next month.
Senator Cummins stressed that this was necessary because incentives, programmes and projects had been implemented over the last three years, in support of the renewable energy transition.
The forum formally marked the start of a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development Energy Sector Reform Project, which is a four-and-a-half-year project that promotes self-reliance in 13 Caribbean countries by bolstering the performance of energy systems.
US Ambassador to Barbados, Linda Taglialatela, explained that the project provides technical assistance to utilities, ministries, and regulators in the Caribbean to develop policies, laws, regulations, tools, and processes to make energy systems more resilient and modern.
Ms. Taglialatela said the activity would help Caribbean countries develop more productive and diverse economies for long-term and sustainable economic growth, by bolstering energy systems across the region.
The Ambassador stated that the climate crisis could not be solved without transforming the ways energy was produced and used.