NASSAU, Bahamas — The Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) president yesterday suggested running an electricity cable between his island and Abaco as a way to “stabilise” electricity costs and bring rates down, The Tribune reported on Friday, March 17, 2023 in an article written by Business Editor Neil Hartnell and Fay Simmons.
Ian Rolle unveiled the plan at the Grand Bahama Business Outlook conference, where he suggested that such a venture would potentially expand Grand Bahama Power Company’s customer base and provide additional redundancy for Abaco consumers who presently rely on Bahamas Power & Light (BPL).
“We feel if we are able to stabilise the cost of electricity…. we envision a cable possibly running from Grand Bahama to Abaco that would help to spread the cost over a larger population and add redundancy for our brothers and sisters next door to us,” he explained. “We hope that with the spreading out of cost, the rate, it will have a positive effect for all of us.”
Back solely on Grand Bahama, Mr Rolle confirmed that the transition to renewable energy was “a big push for this island”. He added: “We have three to four solar plants proposed for Grand Bahama to stabilise the cost and transition to clean energy. I’m so happy to say that one of the projects the Port has been working feverishly on will break ground tomorrow.”
Hours later Mr Rolle and the GBPA were joined by Grand Bahama Power Company in signing a four-party agreement, also involving the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), for construction of a $15m utility-scale solar project at two sites that will supply a combined 9.5 Mega Watts (MW) to the island’s electricity grid.
The deal will see Lucayas Solar Power begin construction on the Devon and Fairfield plants this month. The build-out of the two sites, which will provide 4.5 MW and 5 MW, respectively, is set to create some 80 construction jobs and be completed by the 2024 first quarter.
Lucayas Solar Power will operate as an independent power producer (IPP) that sells the electricity it produces to GB Power, which will then distribute it to its customer base via Grand Bahama’s electricity grid. GB Power will purchase the solar energy produced by the plants at a locked-in price of $0.09 cents per kilowatt hour (KWh) over the duration of a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Lucayas Solar Power.
Elsewhere, Juan Fernandez, Carnival’s vice-president of port operations, said site clearance for its Grand Port project was now complete and it was working to elevate the location some 12-15 feet above its present level. This work was now 50 percent finished, and he added that landside construction was likely to start towards the end of this year.
Some 80 Bahamians are working at the site currently for various contractors, he added, and Carnival is forecasting that by the second year of operations its port project will be responsible for creating around 1,000 jobs on Grand Bahama. Ground breaking for the development took place in May 2022. See complete article in The Tribune at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2023/mar/17/port-chief-eyeing-abaco-power-cable-connection/
