NASSAU — A Bahamian-led consortium is bidding to develop a $40-$50m biomass-fuelled power plant in North Andros through a proposal featuring a tie-up with BAMSI, The Tribune reported on May24 in a story written by Business Editor Neil Hartnell.
Tribune Business can reveal that Providence Energy Partners is offering to develop a 10-15 mega watt (MW) plant to supply all Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) power needs in North Andros.
The proposal involves generating energy from biomass, which would be produced through the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute’s (BAMSI) plans to clear up to 5,000 acres for farm land.
This newspaper was told that that Providence Energy Partners’ project represented a potential “prototype” for future Family Island power generation via renewable sources, although its success hinges on BPL and Government approvals.
Critically, the proposal needs to secure a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with BPL so that it can sell all energy produced by the plant to
the state-owned utility’s transmission and distribution (T&D) system. And, with regulators accusing BPL of failing to meet its renewable energy commitments, a PPA and other approvals have yet to be issued.
Tennyson Wells, BAMSI’s chairman, confirmed that Providence Energy Partners had presented its project to the Institute’s Board as both sides explored the potential synergies and mutual benefits that could flow from it.
“What they came to us with is they want to take over the power generation from Behring Point to Red Bays in North Andros,” Mr Wells recalled. “BAMSI needs extra farmland, prepared land, and they wanted to use biomass from that land. I told them I would like to see 5,000 acres prepared so that when students come out of BAMSI they could have long-term leases of the land already prepared. If we did that, BAMSI would support their [Providence Energy Partners] efforts to use the trees” cut down for biomass fuel for the power plant.
Providence Energy Partners is an affiliate of Providence Advisors, the Bahamian investment and financial advisory firm. Kenwood Kerr, principal of both entities, declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business on the grounds he did not want to prejudice talks with both BPL and the Government.
