The Renewable Energy Industry in CARIFORUM Countries

RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY STAKEHOLDER ASSESSMENT

COMMENWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

3.2 | COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is a collection of islands of about 13,943 square kilometres and a population of about 393,482 (UN,2019). Its main economic sectors are tourism and financial services. The electricity utilities have an installed capacity of 536 MW as reported in their energy score card for 2018. Bahamas has a negligible RE capacity in their energy mix and no Independent Power Producers (IPPs). The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) is a government owned corporation and the Grand Bahama Power Company (GBPC) is a private utility company. They are not actively involved in RE generation for customers.

3.2.1 | LEAD GOVERNMENT MINISTRY

The Ministry of Public Works is the lead ministry for the energy portfolio, even though some consultation does occur between four other ministries which share the responsibilities of generating, distributing and managing the energy resources in the Bahamas. Together they have developed the national energy policy and action plan. There are also RE targets and an established regulatory authority to oversee the energy sector. The policy clearly indicated the government’s plan for renewable energy to make an increasing contribution to the Bahamas’ energy supplies in the future. All the framework components to allow interconnection to the national grid are still outstanding. This maintains a level of uncertainty in the RE sector and hinders the active participation of the key stakeholders. RE companies are only able to implement small (up to 5KW) RE systems for self-generations, thereby limiting residential and commercial participation in the national energy sector. The LGM stakeholder relationships are extrapolated from the other stakeholders which interact with them.

3.2.2 | UTILITIES REGULATOR

The regulator is the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA). It has oversight for the arrangements between RE generators and the electricity utility, and as such, plays an important role in the RE industry. The URCA’s activities in the RE Sector are guided by the overarching objectives in the National Energy Policy. They have the responsibilities of developing the framework for energy sector licensing and monitoring the implementation of RE IPP agreements. There are currently no regulations to facilitate the interconnection of self-generating RE implementations nor feed in tariffs. The regulatory function in the RE sector is still evolving and may not yet be exploring all the relationships necessary to develop the sector. The UR’s stakeholder relationships are extrapolated from the other stakeholders which interact with them.

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The Renewable Energy Industry in CARIFORUM Countries