Thinkpiece – Caribbean Renewables Investment
The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Baringa Partners LLP publish a thinkpiece on renewables investment in the Caribbean.
The thinkpiece follows on from discussions at the Caribbean Electric Utility Corporation’s (CARILEC) fifth regulatory forum in the British Virgin Islands on the 24 September 2014. The forum focused on regulatory issues for the Caribbean electricity sector and outlines the commercial and regulatory issues being faced by Caribbean utilities.
The forum brought together utilities, governments, regulators, industrial customers, international donors and other experts to discuss regulatory issues for the Caribbean electricity sector. It focused on the need to deliver reliability, affordability and sustainability of supply in systems with an increasing penetration of renewable energy.
The main themes included:
- tariff design for self-generation
- efficient cost sharing
- incentive regulation
- enabling participation of Independent Power Producers (IPPs)
The thinkpiece also discusses some of the fundamental challenges raised by stakeholders at the forum as well as some of the principles to guide regulatory change. It sets out the issues around tariff design, contracting with utility scale generators, and fair charges for new services such as storage and network management.
The Caribbean energy markets are facing unprecedented change and renewable energy provides an opportunity to reduce dependence on imported oil.