“We feel confident that there will be no load shedding this summer”
Minister says utility company plans to launch rate reduction bond soon
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Works Desmond Bannister said yesterday “the turnaround and righting of BPL (Bahamas Power and Light) is well underway”, predicting that there will be no load shedding this summer as the utility company has excess generation capacity to meet the summer peak load of 250 megawatts (MW).
During his contribution to the 2021/2022 budget debate, Bannister said: “We can safely account for a minimum of between 315 and 350 megawatts across the summer against an expected summer peak load of 250MW.”
The highest recorded peak is 248 MW.
Bannister continued: “We feel confident that there will be no load shedding this summer.”
He noted that BPL has now turned its attention to improving the transmission and distribution network by upgrading its communications lines from copper to fiber optic so that faults impacting the transmission and distribution network will be cleared more quickly, resulting in fewer forced outages as well as reducing damage of equipment.
“The improvement in fiber communications will improve BPL’s ability to remotely address outage incidents without the need to deploy operators to field locations. In this way, the duration of outage to customers can be significantly lessened,” said Bannister.
He added: “The turnaround and righting of BPL is well underway. Our goal is to build a self-sustaining utility that is capable of meeting the growing power infrastructure needs of the country as additional islands are developed throughout the country.”
Speaking on the small-scale renewable generation (SSRG) program, Bannister noted that in 2019, 155 applications were received and 86 systems completed the application process and passed their functional test. Last year, 99 applications were received, with 51 systems completing the application process and passing their functional test. The current active capacity in the SSRG program is 4,007 kilowatts (KW), excluding Over Yonder Cay.
“URCA accepted BPL’s five-year renewable plan, along with other technical and commercial documentation to support larger scale private installations along with ‘utility scale’ installation. The company is now working on financial and technical approaches to achieve that goal,” said Bannister.
“After delays caused by Dorian and COVID-19, the installation of the microgrid on Ragged Island is now complete and will soon be going through its final commissioning stages. Ragged Island is scheduled for commissioning this coming August.”
The public works minister noted that between July 1, 2020 and April 30 of this year, BPL supplied 107,481 customers with 1,196,154,021 units billed, which provided a total sales dollar value of $278,803,333.34.
Rate reduction bond still in the pipeline
Speaking on the company’s proposed rate reduction bond (RRB), Bannister noted it will allow BPL to make the much-needed additional investments in generation and the transmission and distribution network, as well as in training of employees in order to build greater capacity within the organization.
“The former administration created BPL in debt, and they left it in debt,” said Bannister.
“The refinancing of the legacy BEC loans totaling $246 million and the BPL interim loan of $75 million began in June 2019 with the issuance of the RFP to appoint a bookrunner/lead arranger for the issuance of the long-anticipated rate reduction bonds.
“In February 2020, BPL/BRRBL (Bahamas Rate Reduction Bond Limited) were close to launching the rate reduction bonds transaction in a listed, public format. However, following the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, the public markets were severely impacted. As a result, BPL/BRRBL had to delay launch of the transaction.”
Bannister added: “In July 2020, BPL and its lead arranger began to explore alternative funding options, these centered on accessing different markets and debt formats, using the rate reduction bond structure to minimize the cost of debt ultimately borne by BPL customers.
“You will hear more about this as BPL takes steps to launch the RRB in short order.”
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