Utility grids are archaic, and ours is positively decrepit.
Even the US grid is subject to blackouts and outages, although they have more alternate routing capabilities and resources than we do.
having said that, if no one pays the bills, something is going to end up short.

Nice sales pitch!
How exactly does it save 20% energy consumption when all it does is kill bacteria in the air flowing through the ducts?
It does not vaporize dirt and dust so the filters still have to capture that, and will still get restricted.
Changing filters regularly can help with efficiency.
UV light has been used for decades to kill bacteria in water for years.

A private sector Chairman announcing something like that would be fired!!
Amazing what they admit to in these announcements touting how great they're doing!

Give it to them, the others get mad. Give to the others, and them get mad.
Give it to foreigners (like Ingraham did with BTC)
And we all get mad!!
Our two political parties have build themselves a Chinese finger trap!! (no pun intended)

Understand that the driving force is to reduce Duty rates, as they are considered "Barriers to trade" (WTO Bureaucratic language) and must be reduced under WTO accession requirements.
It is the Duty rates we have to reduce that forces the Government to find alternate sources of Tax revenue.
VAT has been settled on, and should have been implemented in 2008.
(Our Govt had been working on this from at least 2005)
We deferred, and dithered, and studied, and received grants and loans and hired Consultants and gathered reports and didn't consult and hid it all from the public who should have smelled trouble but didn't.
IMf, the great bureaucratic lender of $$$ in the sky has increased pressure and may well have issued an ultimatum:
Implement or face devaluation.
The public will never know the truth, as the FNM kept it all secret, and the PLP get smacked in the back of the head by these things every time.
Now, VAT has to be implemented in 2014 but:
The duty rates have to be "regularized" down to 8-12% by 2025.
Also, all of this legislation amending and new rules/legislation implementing is also required by WTO and the Trade agreements signed, also WTO compliant.
Phrases like "most favored nation" and "trade Liberalization" and "Basket offers" and Non discriminatory Clauses, all language created by the extra-territorial bureaucratic global organizations who now "run the show" (ilo, wto, imf, et al )
The Government of the Bahamas is beholden via the Grants and Loan of funds to be spent studying and readying.
BTW, get ready for real property taxes with no exemptions for Bahamians, and market liberalizations which means no protection for Bahamians.
In 2010 Ingraham announced Foreign direct investment in the Restaurant and entertainment businesses, claimed to be intended to help offer a better tourist experience.
Not so.
This "Liberalization" was agreed to and scheduled a few years before.
How about the 50% of regular duty rates on certain goods imported from EU-EPA Signatory countries?
They exist, but were implemented very quietly.
In short, this has been coming a long time.

Accede, meaning Surrender without a shot!
Seriously, while we are in a very weak position by our own hand, terrible fiscal management, high debt to GDP ratio, incompetence in managing our nations affairs, our relatively small private sector will have to foot the bills in total.
These increased bureaucratic costs are not sustainable.
The proof is just around the corner.

More useless Government employees to to do what?
The Bahamas, a country that manufactures nothing, is going to create, from scratch,
A UL? (underwriters laboratory)
This is insanity, as the Standards of Europe and North America evolved at manufacturers expense over the course of decades if not a century!
Why not adopt the UL standard, just as we adopted the Canadian Electrical Code?
Hell, use the "E" standards of europe if they're in charge now!
Also I hope they seriously amend the Legislation as passed, as it was authored by the PLP (Leslie Miller presiding) with no thought to the costs to business, being they, the importer have to supply "Samples" out of imported materials equipment etc for the Government to "test" (up to 3 units of each item and other mechanisms for appropriation of private property) This means destructive testing and no return of the goods! (bet they test plenty TV sets, fridges and furniture in Civil servants houses)
Also note the use of the Word "mandate"
So it seems our Government is no longer running the show, but being told how to run the show.
So much for putting "Bahamians" first.
I hope the People wake up to the fact that they have been sold down the river by PLP and FNM.

For Gods Sake, DO NOT follow the Grand Bahama Power Company/Emera example,
where Emera is guaranteed a minimum 10% return on investment, and excludes the private sector from Alternate energy!
While Emera is trying to break the union by separating the Generation side from the Transmission/distribution side, the rates are still $0.38+ /Kwh
with very dirty line quality, as bad as if not worse than BEC.

I wouldn't want to be the Chairman when it folds up either!

And you assume they will lower the Duty rates to match the VAT %.
Duty rates do not have to decrease in 2014, the Govt has until 2025 for that!
I smell Tax overlap, the Government smells increased revenue!