Barbadians must be able to examine the arrangement between Government and the Barbados Light & Power Co. Ltd. (BL&P), says Opposition Senator Ryan Walters.
Reacting to a report in the last SATURDAY SUN headlined Powering Up, on the new licensing agreement between Government and BL&P that would “benefit Barbadians”, he questioned how that could be the case.
“Barbadians cannot benefit from arrangements they are not allowed to see, understand or question. This is exactly the problem with what took place a couple days ago: a major, long-term agreement was signed, supposedly on behalf of every electricity user in Barbados, yet not a single detail has been disclosed,” he said in a media statement.
Questioned
Walters also questioned the transparency often touted by Government and the public consultation “they constantly boast about”.
“Where is the explanation to households and small businesses, who bear the cost of every energy decision, about how this deal affects their electricity bills for the next 20 to 30 years?
“We have none! Instead, what we are hearing from the minister of energy is far from reassuring. There was no commitment to lowering bills, stabilising rates or protecting the majority of consumers,” he stated.
Instead, said the Democratic Labour Party spokesman on energy, there was excitement about hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment that will only benefit a small class of wealthy investors whose projects “were encouraged prematurely and are now stuck, unprofitable and waiting for Government to rescue them”.
The Government, he added, seemed more focused on appeasing investors with stalled renewable energy projects than on safeguarding the pockets of Barbadians.
Minister of Energy Senator Lisa Cummins had stated: “I think that all of Barbados knows that the grid in the country has had what we have been describing as gridlock. We have a number of projects that have been awaiting connection to the grid [but] it is important for projects to not just have connections to the grid, but to have signed power purchase agreements that establish the relationship between independent power producers as part of the democratisation of the energy process and the offtaker, namely [BL&P].
Licences
“We have completed negotiation of the licences for the operations of [BL&P] in Barbados. It allows for those power purchase agreements to be signed because there is clarity and there’s predictability in the relationship between the utility and the Government of Barbados,” she added last Friday during the signing ceremony at the Warrens Office Complex, St Michael.
Walters stated that the minister pointed out that the new framework cleared the way for more than $500 million in renewable energy investments, but said nothing about what it meant for the cost of electricity.
“Not one word about whether this deal will stabilise or reduce bills. Not one word about whether ratepayers will now be forced to subsidise decades of guaranteed profits for private energy producers.
“The minister has seemingly forgotten that service in public life is to the people and not just a subset of the people,” the senator said.
He said Barbadians deserved to know, among other things, the exact obligations to which the Government has committed; whether the new licensing arrangement will lead to higher rates, new fees, or additional surcharges; the protections for households and small businesses, and why the deal was concluded without public disclosure.
Walters challenged the minister to give answers instead of focusing on gridlock or investor “certainty”.
“Barbadians cannot be asked to shoulder higher bills so that wealthy investors who were encouraged into the renewable sector prematurely can now get guaranteed access, guaranteed returns and guaranteed profits.” (AC)
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