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Cost of Living Alert: BL&P to Submit Application for Rate Increase

Amid the din of post-Christmas activity the FTC posted a notice requesting technical assistance to support a rate review in the second quarter 2019. A worst case scenario for Barbadian consumers to consider is that the BL&P will be granted the increase. One does not require deep dive analysis to gauge the state of mind…

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bl&p
Source: Fair Trading Commission (FTC)

Amid the din of post-Christmas activity the FTC posted a notice requesting technical assistance to support a rate review in the second quarter 2019. A worst case scenario for Barbadian consumers to consider is that the BL&P will be granted the increase.

One does not require deep dive analysis to gauge the state of mind of Barbadian consumers, we are a citizenry suffering from economic fatigue.  The blogmaster is of the view the fatigue state of mind of the electorate largely resulted in the 30 zip defeat of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in the last general election.

Electricity is a significant input cost in the production process. To our credit we have been developing alternative energy sources, however, it is still at a nascent stage. An increase in electricity rates will have a significant impact on the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) cost to pump and distribute water. The upside is that it may speed up the implementation of alternative power sources by that utility company.

There can be no argument that an increase in the electricity rate will drive the cost of living upwards. The business sector continues to be affected by the removal of the road tax and imposition of the fuel tax.

It makes no sense for Barbados to be boasting about  generating energy from alternative sources and at the same time consumers are asked to suffer an increase in electricity rates.

 

 

 

67 responses to “Cost of Living Alert: BL&P to Submit Application for Rate Increase”

  1. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Hal

    Your question is irrelevant to the issue. We do grow eddoes and we do not even satisfy the local demand for eddoes and yams. Farmers do not grow crops to satisfy a notion for earning forex. They grow to make profits. Countries promote industries that have a viable export market. It is not profitable to export eddoes and yams ,even if they were to pass the phyto-sanitary requirements. We went this route with yams before.
    I will not be discussing this issue further.

  2. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Vincent,
    If we grow eddoes but do not satisfy local demand, then do we import or do people go without? The nonsense about foreign exchange was not raised by me. Plse do not use my name in rows with others.

  3. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    “Countries promote industries that have a viable export market. It is not profitable to export eddoes and yams ,even if they were to pass the phyto-sanitary requirements.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Based on that argument Barbados could as well abandon its sugar industry and close down the Ministry of Agriculture and related agencies currently managed by over 20 people holding doctorates in agricultural science.

    That Ministry of Agriculture is the ideal candidate for the BERT post mortem.

    But just a warning to you Bajans: The lazy easy days of borrowing money from overseas to pay for your imported food are over.
    You either learn to grow much more of your food to facilitate greater of economies of scale to reduce unit cost of production or you succumb to the prescient warnings of the calypsonian the Mighty Chalkdust:

    “Is time them Barbadians understand
    You can’t sit back and laugh at Jamaicans
    ‘Cause without them tourist boats from (Trump Land)
    Sweet Barbados heading for starvation
    The day you ent get paid from Washington (and London)
    Well, crapaud smoke your pipe down in Bridgetown
    Is time that you and [Skerritt] understand
    That all you have is just seawater and sand.”

  4. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Miller
    That seawater is a gold mine if we can get the scientists on the Hill to turn it into energy.It is already patented that a thimble full of seawater has the energy of 100,000 gallons of petrol.

  5. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “already patented that a thimble full of seawater has the energy of 100,000 gallons of petrol.”

    I know mary jane isn’t yet legal in Bim, but I need to know your supplier. I want some of dat weed.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    The Electric Vehicle Revolution Is Alive In Barbados

    James Ellsmoor Contributor

    Under 30 Forbes 30 Under 30 for Energy and Sustainability

    The Caribbean island of Barbados is now one of the world’s top users of electric vehicles. Much the this is down to local entrepreneur Jo Edghill and her husband Simon Richards, the co-founders of Megapower. This Barbadian company has been pioneering electric vehicles (EVs) throughout the Caribbean region since 2013, after Jo returned from living abroad in Australia, China, England and Papua New Guinea to launch the company.

    Megapower is not a traditional garage, offering a range of renewable energy services to complement its electric vehicles. The team focuses on bringing EV, charging infrastructure and solar energy to the Caribbean, working across the region from Trinidad to The Bahamas and with customers including governments, electric utilities and the private sector. Leading by example, the company’s own offices were taken entirely off-grid this year, and Jo parks her own electric vehicle (a BMW i3) under a modular solar carport designed by her team.

    Jo Edghill (center) with two EV customers and their BMW i3s, Marla Dukharan of Bitt Inc. (left) and Marsha Lewis of LCI Inc. (right).Megapower Ltd.

    James Ellsmoor: Congratulations on your successes so far! Can you start by telling us what inspired you to launch Megapower? Why do EVs make sense particularly for islands like Barbados?

    Jo Edghill: Barbados is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels to generate over 96% of our electricity. This puts our island in an unsustainable situation and fluctuations in global oil prices can heavily impact our economy. It also makes sense to reduce this reliance from a cost-saving and environmental preservation perspective.

    I spent some time living and working in Papua New Guinea, which is a country abundantly rich in natural resources. When I returned to Barbados, it really struck me that here we have our own natural, renewable resource, the sun, that is being underutilized! We have at least 220 days of pure sunlight every year, so why not take advantage? Recognizing that Barbados, with our relatively short driving distances and abundant sunshine, is an ideal location to operate electric cars, with free fuel from the sun, we decided to launch Megapower.

  7. akenatenI Avatar
    akenatenI

    Solution:1)
    More Bajans should invest in solar system + batteries.
    2) Bajans RE customers suffering due to the fraudulent buy all sell all agreement for grid tie systems set up by BL& P and facilitated by the FTC & Politicians.
    BL& P buys all the electricity from RE customer @42 cents & sells back for 67 cents. This is clear fraud, instead a fair system would trade a kWh for a kWh.
    Example :
    RE customer sell 200 kWh to BL&P.
    RE customer buys 300kwh from BL&P
    Net: 300-200= 100@ 0.67
    $67.
    Buy all sell all agreement:
    Net (300@0.67)- (200@0.42)
    201-84=$117.
    This is the fraud that the FTC allows.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    The structure supports grid tied systems. Even if it were changed tomorrow the suppliers will make a killing at the consumers expense because they would have to change out inverters. The customer always loses.

  9. akenatenI Avatar
    akenatenI

    Only 5% of electricity is generated from RE ( Renewable Energy).
    Barbadian don’t have to take this crap from BL& P. If the majority of domestic customers go to solar + battery systems, BL&P would be in big trouble. If
    BL&P continues its current behaviour, they may be obsolete in the next decade.
    Solar panels & accessories have zero duties, vat & environmental levy.
    Duties on electric cars are significantly lower than petrol vehicles.
    Similarly duties are lower on energy efficient smart appliciances. The problem is that corrupt local dealers refuse to pass these saving on to public.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    By your statement you seem to imply that the government is complicit in protecting the establishment’?

  11. SirFuzzy (Former Sheep) Avatar
    SirFuzzy (Former Sheep)

    (quote)
    Traditionally, funding to maintain road and highway infrastructure comes from a gasoline tax, which means drivers of ICE vehicles contribute to the fund in proportion to how much they drive. However, the rise of EVs could cause receipts from gas taxes to dwindle.

    California, the state with the highest level of EV adoption (and the most losses in gas tax revenue), currently addresses this issue with an annual $100 EV registration fee that goes towards maintaining roads. However, a new research report indicates that this approach is both unsustainable and inequitable.

    “The registration fee is not a sustainable mechanism to provide adequate funding as California transitions towards ZEVs [zero emission vehicles],” states the report from the University of California, Davis’s Institute of Transportation Studies. “Additionally, the fee detracts from the market adoption of ZEV technologies by as much as a 20% decrease in new ZEV sales.”

    The proposed solution? Instead of an annual EV fee, the report suggests implementing a road user charge, or RUC. In this model, drivers are charged a fee in proportion to how many miles they actually drive. In theory, the RUC could be applied to all vehicles. However, the report concludes that it would be most cost-effective to keep the gasoline tax for gas-powered vehicles, and impose the RUC only on EV drivers.

    “Our analysis suggests that the best solution for creating a sustainable, robust funding system is an RUC program applied only to ZEVs (allowing the parallel gasoline tax to gradually atrophy and eventually disappear),” concludes the report.
    (quote)

    https://chargedevs.com/newswire/california-considers-an-ev-mileage-fee-to-support-road-infrastructure/

    In the USA especially California they are looking at way how the state can maintain fuel tax/road tax revenues as the electric vehicles being their rise to domination. We to in Bim must see the writing on the wall and expect that or Govt will most likely do something similar.

  12. akenatenI Avatar
    akenatenI

    I hope that megapower don’t get the bid. The pale skin gangsters that run this company were bringing in used / second hand electric vehicles from the UK & selling as new vehicles at exorbitant prices. In addition these pale skin bastards were threatening & intimidating citizens who imported electric cars via other sources than them. These pale skin bastards wanted to monopolise the market for themselves. They submitted a bid to government for 180 buses. They will probably bring in some second hand / uses buses & charge the equivalent of two new buses; look forward to more corruption. Remember the bastards at Trantec were bringing in used transmission & selling them to Transport Board at the price of a new one.

  13. akenatenI Avatar
    akenatenI

    The pale bastard that owns megapower were importing used electric cars that cost £11,000-15, 000(*2.5) & selling for 100 000- 120, 000 Bds. Remember electric cars carry the lower rate of duties for vehicles.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @akenatenI

    Do you have evidence of what you have accused Edghill?

  15. akenatenI Avatar
    akenatenI

    https://youtu.be/54iuCZq2Qws

  16. akenatenI Avatar
    akenatenI

    Why is Grantley Adams International not a 100% solar power? If the government can’t accomplish this in 5 yr then they should resign. We are wasting million in Forex on oil imports.

  17. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ akenatenI February 6, 2019 7:22 PM

    The life-giving energy from the Aten is not being used to accomplish more economic security because the GAIA is one of Emera’s biggest and most profitable customers.

    For without those massive contributions to fixed costs and profits by GAIA, BWA and QEH that BL&P gnerating plant at Spring Garden would have to be abandoned because of the ‘below-profit-expectations’ which Emera would deemed justifiably important reasons to exit the market just like Scotia, CIBC and the rest.

    Would the government be left holding the bag containing the shitty end of this strategic asset required to distribute electricity to the poor masses who cannot afford solar panels and storage batteries on their galvanized-roof board and shingles adobes?

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