By ANNELIA NIXON

anixon@tribunemedia.net

QUESTIONS have been raised about the effect on BPL rates after Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis announced the government finalised a power purchase agreement for a new 117 megawatt power plant.

Darvin Russell, owner of Bugs B Gone, told Tribune Business he’s not been given reason to disbelieve that he will see a positive change in electricity service and cost, however he questioned what it’s going to cost.

“I mean I don’t have any reason not to believe what the good minister is saying in that regard,” Mr Russell said. “My concern is more, what is the rate with which the government is being charged for the power purchase agreement?

“Most of these agreements span decades and the issue that you have is if you don’t have a contract with a favourable kilowatt rate, all you’re in essence doing is really just transferring the cost that you’re paying under the power purchase agreement onto the consumer. So the power may be more reliable from a generation and distribution perspective, but you’re not going to see any relief in the price of electricity, which is Bahamian’s biggest concern before even reliability. I don’t think that the average Bahamian would be as concerned if their power goes off once a week if they were paying ten cents a kilowatt hour for example. So I just wanted to make sure that we’re focused as a country on the right issue.”

The manager of an eye care facility shared the same concerns, saying: “I’m hopeful but I think what everybody’s waiting on is the details. If they’re paying more for something, how does that trickle down to us paying less? And I did hear her [JoBeth Colbey-Davis] briefly as I was driving in saying something about converting to LNG, which would be cheaper and I do think if they use an alternative source of energy that they can bring down our electrical bills, but I’m not sure with buying two new engines how that works. Are they paying more now? And if so, how does that mean that we’re paying less? I’m not quite sure what the details would be.”

Mr Davis said he will not disclose the details now but all will be revealed in coming weeks as it pertains to energy reform, new engines and partnerships.

However, both the manager of the eye care facility and Shirlin Jordine, owner of Easy Technology Bahamas, noted that despite their efforts to not consume too much energy, they are still charged with high bills and they want to believe they will receive some relief.

Mr Jordine said: “That’s something that is needed because of the electricity not being calculated properly. That’s something that they need to, uh, work on. At the time the issue we had was it was wrong. Meaning that we wouldn’t use as much electricity, but it still would remain high. Even though we tried to limit our usage, it still was the same or even more so that showed me that the electricity wasn’t calculated properly and businesses probably were charged a different price than residential homes instead of commercial properties.”

Energy minister JoBeth Colbey-Davis said the power purchase agreement (PPA) has provisions that will prevent residents and businesses from having to handle “large cost fluctuations.”

“Today, we are commissioning two dual fuel turbine engines because of a public-private partnership between BPL and Bahamas Utilities Holdings,” said Mrs Coleby-Davis.

“The partnership is guided by a power purchase agreement. PPAs are standard practice in the energy field. The PPA for this project includes clearly defined key performance indicators and penalties for non-performance. Provisions have also been included to lock down rates, which will protect Bahamian households and businesses from large cost fluctuations.

“The partnership with Bahamas Utilities Holdings will allow for BPL to increase its generation capacity, with direct benefits for households and businesses in New Providence, such as improved reliability and electricity service.”