The Renewable Energy Industry in CARIFORUM Countries

RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY STAKEHOLDER ASSESSMENT

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

3.13.2 | UTILITIES REGULATOR

There is no independent regulatory body in St. Vincent. Only IPPs may connect to the national grid and they are required to apply to the utility and the lead ministry for permission and terms and conditions for connection. The Government therefore sets the feed-in tariffs. Other residential and commercial installations are for self-consumption and not for the national grid. 3.13.3 | FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS The financial institutions in St. Vincent are not very engaged with the other RE Industry stakeholders. Commercial banks tend to treat RE requests like any other request and offer no preferential treatment. The RE Industry is also quite small and mostly self-financed. Investment opportunities by residential and commercial businesses are limited since there are no established regulations for interconnection. Consequently, the FIs are not being called upon to play a significant role. The FI stakeholder relationships are extrapolated from the other stakeholders that interact with them.

3.13.4 | PRIVATE SECTOR INSTITUTIONS

The St. Vincent private sector institutions carry several responsibilities including business support to membership, advocacy, capacity building, networking to develop partnerships and the promotion of government’s mandate, including tourism, export development, agri-processing and RE. Investment in key sectors including RE are also of significant importance. On average only 1 REC exists amongst the membership of each PSI. PSIs have between 2 and 14 persons to execute their mandate with an average of 8 staff per PSI. The investment entities have the higher compliment of persons and this provides adequate human resources to support the Governments strategy to attract investment in the RE Industry. The PSIs have expressed the need to have clear policy on RE in the pending new energy Bill and more fiscal incentives written into law instead of being granted at the discretion of cabinet on an application-by- application basis. Promotion of EVs powered by RE and broad-based training, building retrofits

and education are also seen as critical, including key sectors like tourism and agriculture. Their relationship with the other key stakeholders is depicted in Figure 3.66.

LEAD GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES

UTILITIES REGULATOR

REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS

PRIVATE SECTOR INSTITUTIONS

FUNDING AGENCIES

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPANIES

Figure 3.66 | Relationships of St. Vincent’s Private Sector Institutions

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The Renewable Energy Industry in CARIFORUM Countries