The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority (URCA) executives yesterday said battery energy storage systems (BESS) to help drive greater renewable energy usage will be here “sooner rather than later”.

Jerome Elliot, its regulatory manager, told a webinar: “URCA understands that battery energy storage is simple. Batteries and their use are coming under the requirements of section 23 and section 44 of the Electricity Act. URCA does have a role in the regulation of battery energy sources.”

He added that URCA has “the capacity to advance the electricity sector policy of the Government” by enabling the implementation of different energy technologies. “Some of the benefits of energy storage to consumers, not necessarily in The Bahamas but if we had this particular case in the Bahamas, time of use management would certainly be one of the benefits,” Mr Elliot said.

“Decrease in consumption is certainly a benefit. Demand charge reduction is a benefit to consumers. A demand charge is a charge that is levied by the utility that’s based on the highest consumption by a consumer through installing a battery energy system.”

The storage provider does not have to be the power provider either. “Let’s say an investor comes along and wants to install an energy storage facility on the grid,” Mr Elliot said. “I’ll put it at a location of your choosing, which will allow you to not have to install additional generation.

“So you don’t have to put another generating plant here, and you don’t have to extend your line at all. I will put it where you need it to be, and so what that does for the system operator is that that allows them to defer capital investment, so he doesn’t have to invest in a generating plant and he does not have to invest in a transmission line.”

Electric vehicles also have a “role to play” because some persons interested in battery storage systems have also said they will purchase such autos in the near future.