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MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2025
$5.50 $4.75 BPL bill decline for businesses ‘total hogwash’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN ex-Cabinet minister has blasted it is “total hogwash” for the Government to boast it has reduced business energy costs with his firm now paying an all-in rate 45.8 percent higher than in October 2022. Dionisio D’Aguilar, Superwash’s principal, told Tribune Business the latter date is his “starting point” for comparing Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) electricity costs given that it is when the utility’s hedge ended to be overtaken by its so-called ‘glide path’ strategy for recouping under-recovered fuel costs. Analysing the historical data, he asserted that BPL’s all-in per kilowatt hour (KWh) prices have “progressively gotten worse” over the past 18 months, having risen from 32 cents and 31 cents per KWh at year-end 2023 and early 2024, respectively, to the present 35 cents per KWh. The former minister of tourism and aviation, noting that BPL bills for businesses and households are calculated differently under the Government’s equity rate adjustment structure, nevertheless told
this newspaper that Superwash’s present 35 cents per KWh rate is some 11 cents or almost 46 percent higher than the 24 cents the laundromat chain was paying when the fuel hedge ended. Speaking in the wake of last week’s outcry over the huge month-on-month increase in consumer, with some homeowners suffering a near-tripling in their July bill, Mr D’Aguilar said: “What I noticed is that I am now paying 35 cents per KWh. My starting point is when the hedge came off in 2022, which was 24 cents per KWh. “We’re in that season, so I am going to get slightly political. The Government always likes to boast they are saving the Bahamian people and Bahamian
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$5.51
$5.48
Energy reform ‘coming together like clockwork’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
DIONISIO D’AGUILAR
$5.50
ELECTRICITY generation reform on New Providence is “coming together like clockwork”, FOCOL Holdings’ top executive is asserting, after sealing a near-$100m deal backed by a US government institution. Dexter Adderley, the BISX-listed firm’s president and chief executive, told Tribune Business “there is zero doubt” it will meet its commitments to transforming New Providence’s generation mix with cheaper, more reliable and cleaner supply after securing nearly $99.6m in financing from the US Export-Import Bank. Describing the transaction as a “significant portion of the overall financing package” for upgrades, which are being spearheaded by FOCOL’s subsidiary, Bahamas Utilities Holdings, he added that “commitments on the full financing needs for the project” - estimated at “just under half-a-billion dollars” of investment - are already in place. The US Export-Import Bank, the federal government arm that funds and underwrites credit for American exporters, confirmed in a statement on Friday that the $99.6m will finance FOCOL Holdings’ acquisition of the equipment needed to construct the
t N '0$0- EFBM VOEFSXSJUUFO CZ 64 (PW U t 6QHSBEF UP HJWF CVJMEJOH GVMM UJNF KPCT t 4BNF mSN JNQSPWJOH HSJE UP TVQQMZ QJQFMJOFT two pipelines - one for diesel, the other for natural gas - that will carry the generation fuels from Clifton Pier to the Blue Hills power station. The funding will also be used to procure two aeroderivative gas turbines, capable of using multiple fuels depending on which is least costly, from General Electric (GEV) Vernova. The two pipelines are being supplied by Pike Electric, the same North Carolina-based entity that has been contracted to overhaul New Providence’s transmission and distribution (T&D) electricity grid. Mr Adderley told this newspaper that, while the exact numbers have yet to be confirmed, construction
DEXTER ADDERLEY of the pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal at Clifton Pier and “177 mega watts “combined cycle plant” at Blue Hills will likely create “over” 200 jobs during construction and 40-50 full-time posts “once everything is completed and in operation”. Affirming that Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and its consumers will enjoy “in excess of $100m a year” savings on fuel costs alone when all aspects of the New Providence generation reforms are completed, the FOCOL chief said Bahamas Utilities Holdings is currently in the first two
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Gov’t ‘can’t have it both ways’ over Fund $300m By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition’s finance spokesman last night argued the Government “cannot have it both ways” over its forecast $75.5m Budget surplus and $300m plan to capitalise the National Investment Fund. Kwasi Thompson, the east Grand Bahama MP, told Tribune Business that the Davis administration’s plans to use $300m from the recent $1.067bn sovereign bond refinancing to provide the Fund with startup capital do not appear to be included anywhere in its
KWASI THOMPSON 2025-2026 Budget spending allocations. And, given that the $300m represents the proceeds of borrowing, he challenged whether it
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Briland ‘nightmare’ after week-long BPL outages By NEIL HARTNELL and ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter BRILAND residents yesterday voiced fears of a diesel fuel shortage after a “nightmare” week of on/ off Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) supply culminated in an island-wide outage on Saturday. James Malcolm, a former Ministry of Tourism executive who is a realtor, and now runs a vacation rental/ property management business on Harbour Island, told Tribune Business that businesses had suffered “no
hardship or loss” yet thanks to their generators. However, the tourism hotspot is “on the slippery slope”, and that change if there is a repeat of the past week or diesel supplies are not replenished. “The island is almost out of diesel. I’m down to the last seven gallons at my house,” he revealed. “It has been on and off for the past week. It’s been a nightmare. We all have generators for the rental villas and things like that, but as the diesel goes down there’s none left
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