By Sharon Austin
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (GIS) – Barbados is even closer to executing its first procurement for battery energy storage systems (BESS), which will unlock the grid and allow for the on-boarding of renewable energy.
The Call for Request For Information (RFI) for new battery storage capacity and the publication of the Competitive Procurement term sheets will be launched Friday, November 8. The RFI is the stage prior to the launch of the Competitive Procurement Process for the implementation of 60 megawatts of battery energy storage systems.
The ministry of energy and business on Wednesday hosted an event for the press and its stakeholders, to update on the work of procuring battery energy storage systems, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
Describing the work that has already been done as “pioneering” and “transformational,” minister of energy and business, senator Lisa Cummins, said the island is “a first mover in this space”, so a lot of ground-breaking and developmental work had to be carried out.
Senator Cummins, stated:
“What we’re doing here today creates yet another investment opportunity in the renewable energy sector, while creating that relationship between unlocking the grid and then putting new investment opportunities on the market. […]. This is an open tendering process. We expect that local and international bidders will come forward. There are some things that everyone will be at the table for, without question. But then there are some things that everyone simply can’t sit at the table for because we have to ensure that things like transparency are kept at the front of our minds as we go through the process. So, partners who have members who…want…to have an opportunity to submit bids, who want to have a commercial stake in the process, cannot sit at the table as we designed it.”
The minister explained, however, that the request for information process would allow for feedback on what still needs to be considered before the final documents are issued.
Over the past months, senator Cummins stated that RELP, with the full participation of the other team members, completed a full grid characterisation study for Barbados. The senator pointed out that a new Grid Code had now been completed.
“The Grid Code was submitted in June of this year, and we now have [it] finalised and set to go before the Electricity Panel…of the Fair Trading Commission for finalisation. All of that is detailed work that has taken place over the last year,” senator Cummins disclosed.
In sharing additional plans, senator Cummins, said:
“We have made a commitment as a government that we will be going for 150 megawatts between now and 2026, and so the subsequent tranches of procurement will account for both the distribution side and the transmission side.”
Five megawatts of BESS are currently installed on the grid at Trents, St Lucy, and another 15MW have already been approved by the FTC, through the Clean Energy Transition Rider.
The consultation period for submission of comments and suggestions and the RFI will commence on November 8 and conclude on November 28, 2024.
