The Tribune

• Roberts: $3m-$4m spend payback in under 4 years

• Aims to install panels on all stores by summer 2022

• And pledges to pass savings on $1m bill to shoppers

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s principal yesterday revealed the supermarket chain is aiming to slash its energy bill by “60 percent or better” through installing solar power at all its stores by summer 2022.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business the estimated $3m-$4m investment would need less than four years to start producing financial returns given the $1m monthly bill that Super Value and its Quality Supermarkets affiliate are currently paying to Bahamas Power & Light (BPL).

Pointing out that the $40,000-$50,000 monthly energy costs at Super Value’s warehouse were cut significantly when solar roof-top panels were installed some two years ago, he added that the supermarket chain would seek to pass the forecast savings from the business-wide roll-out on to consumers and ensure more money circulated in the Bahamian economy.

Crediting BPL’s fuel hedging strategy for stabilising Super Value’s energy costs, and keeping them “constant” for the past 18 months, Mr Roberts told this newspaper: “Our plan is that as fast as BPL, the Government and URCA (the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority) agree we want to put solar on the stores.

“That $1m a month we are paying on energy will stay at home to circulate between us. That doesn’t have to go out of the country. We can’t keep inviting tourists here, they spend their money and it goes back out on the next flight. We have to keep some circulating among ourselves. By doing this we’re going to create jobs.

“There’s some maintenance, but that’s insignificant compared to the bill we were getting. We’re on our way. We’ll be doing it store by store. We did the warehouse about two years ago. One month in the summer, BPL owed us a credit but we’re not installing to sell power to BPL. We want to produce our own power.”

Super Value may not need to obtain all the permits and approvals currently required for grid-tied renewable energy systems if its solar plans just involve producing power for itself. Local renewable energy players have long complained about the long, drawn-out process in obtaining multiple approvals from various agencies, including BPL and the Ministry of Works, for grid-tied systems.

And URCA last year admitted that its renewable policies were “not attractive” for companies and investors seeking to enter the sector when proposing a pricing structure switch. It unveiled a move away from larger grid-tied renewable energy systems, capable of producing more than 500 kW (kilowatts) being compensated by BPL for selling energy to the grid via a “buy all, sell” method.

This requires participants with such systems, mainly larger businesses such as Super Value and government facilities, to not consume any electricity generated by their renewable systems. They instead have to export all energy they generate to BPL, and consume all the electricity they need from the state-owned monopoly at the standard retail tariff levied on all its customers.

Those who “sell all” under this arrangement have been compensated by the equivalent of BPL’s appropriate monthly fuel charge, which normally accounts for just 50-60 percent of customer bills. Such a mechanism is vehemently opposed by private sector renewable energy players on the basis that producers are not be fully compensated for what they produce.

URCA is now proposing to go with a net billing compensation structure for grid-tied renewable energy systems capable of producing 500 kW and 1 Mega Watt (MW), which will enables companies with grid-tied systems to “net off” the difference between what they supply to, and consume from, BPL.

Such considerations may not be relevant to Super Value’s plans. Mr Roberts yesterday said the supermarket chain’s stores would use BPL’s supply at night, making no mention of any battery storage facility plans, but added that its locations typically “burn one-third” of the energy they consume in the day when consumers are in-store and air conditioning systems on high.

“We will buy from BPL at night and let the sun supply us during the day,”, he explained. “We’re moving. It’s happening. The [installers] were on the roof probably on January 1. They told me the roods are perfect to move ahead.”

Pegging the likely investment at between $3m-$4m, Mr Roberts said he hoped all installations could be completed “by summer”. He added: “It will be less than a four-year pay-off. Every day we delay we’re wasting sunshine. I think we could slash our energy bill by around 60 percent, and could even do better.

“Then we don’t have to charge that to the consumer. We are only an agent, and whatever we save we pass on. Whatever it costs us we have to pass on. I want to do the big energy guzzlers first; the big stores - Cable Beach, Mackey Street, Winton and Golden Gates, and the three Quality stores. That’s seven to eight of the big stores, and then we have the inner city stores.

“We’re cracking, we’re moving. I was talking to the installers this morning. I think the panels are ordered, and it’s less than a three-month delivery. As soon as they land they want to install them because storage becomes a problem. They want to get them tied down as they have to be finished before hurricane season.”

Mr Roberts said Super Value had installed two generators at some of its larger stores as an extra precaution against power failures given that those locations carry up to $250,000 of perishable produce. “If BPL fails, one generator fails, you have trouble,” he added.

“We’re really big distributors, and use a lot of gasoline and diesel. In the last two years that has probably doubled and tripled. We don’t know where that is going to go.”