NASSAU, BAHAMAS- Grand Bahama Power Company executives said yesterday that the company’s favorable hedge position allows its fuel charge to be lower than that of other regional power companies, noting that the company plans to have 15 percent of its power generated via solar by 2025.
Nikita Mullings, GB Power’s Chief Operating Officer, told Eyewitness News: “We are in a favorable hedge position which allows for our fuel charge to be lower than some of the utilities in the Caribbean. However, there are some parts of the business, such as fuel, where there is volatility in the market that we do not have control over. Fuel is a pass-through to the customers, and so that means it is not anything that we as a business benefit from. We try to encourage our customers to practice energy efficiency to better manage their power bills for those months when the hedge may or may not be as favorable.”
In a recent advisory to its customers on its fuel charge, the company noted that this month the fuel charge rate was 14.03 ¢ per kWh. In January, the fuel charge rate was 12.90 kWh, 13.34 kWh in February, and 13.72 kWh in March.
“We don’t forecast it continuing to go up, but we are favorably hedged at about 80 percent, so there will be less volatility because of our hedge position right now,” said Mullings.
Mullings noted that the company is pushing toward having 15 percent of its energy generated by solar. “On the renewables side, what it does is stabilize the cost of fuel for our customers because we become less dependent on heavy fuel oil and the effect of the volatility of the fuel market. By the end of 2025, what we would have is about 15 percent of our energy being provided by renewable energy through solar,” said Mullings.
