GOVERNMENT’S CONTINUED TRANSITION of Barbados’ energy sector away from fossil fuels to renewables is about to hit some major targets.
Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins said yesterday, the Electricity Supply Act Regulations have been approved by Cabinet and published in the Official Gazette.
She said this meant that by month-end, Government would be in a position to publish Barbados’ first battery energy storage system request for proposal for 60 megawatts of battery storage “to be able to unlock that hundreds of million dollars [in renewable energy investments] trapped in the banking system”.
Cummins also said that next month, the previously-announced utility scale wind farm at Lamberts, St Lucy, would be launched in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank entity.
The minister gave the update yesterday in the Senate as she wrapped up debate on the Barbados National Energy Company Limited (Transfer and Vesting of Assets) Bill, 2025.
The legislation, which was passed, permits the transfer of the assets and liabilities of the National Petroleum Corporation to Barbados National Energy Company Limited, which was formed on April 1, by an amalgamation of the Barbados National Oil Company Limited and Barbados National Terminal Company Limited.
Cummins said that with the electricity grid unable to onboard additional renewable energy providers, the Barbados Light & Power Company and all the energy partners “have been working through the imminent Barbados battery energy storage system”.
She explained that process had now reached a key milestone with the approval of the Electricity Supply Act Regulations.
“Those regulations have now been approved by Cabinet,
have now been gazetted last Friday and are now in operation to support the Electricity Supply Act. By the end of October, the request for proposal for battery energy storage systems will be launched now that the [regulations] have been approved.
“And . . . we will be launching, in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, for Barbados’ first onshore utility scale wind farm . . . in the second week of November.”
Cummins said Government had committed to executing the transition to renewable energy thoroughly and “in a way that balances bulky investments”.
It was also being done in a manner that protects consumers and “creates space” for householders and small and medium-sized enterprises, she added.
“We are so much committed to these principles that embedded in the Lambert’s project is for Barbados to have its very first Renewable Energy Unit Trust that . . . people have an opportunity to buy shares in large projects . . . to make certain that ordinary Barbadians, alongside investors . . . have the ability to invest in our renewable energy assets and resources in this country,” she said. (SC)