(CMR) As the demand for energy on Grand Cayman increases, the Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) has submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) for renewable energy to the Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) in accordance with the Company’s Transmission and Distribution Licence (2008).
The CON is defined as ‘a certificate that the Licensee prepares and submits to the Authority, which sets out the
Licensee’s requirement is for the incremental amount of capacity for which the Authority would solicit. ‘
The National Energy Policy (NEP) 2024-2045 outlines that the Cayman Islands will transition to 70% renewable energy sources by 2037 and 100% renewable energy resources by 2045. CUC advocates adding more renewable energy to the grid, which will allow for cleaner and more affordable energy for the people of Grand Cayman.
CUC’s Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Licence requires CUC to issue a CON to the regulator when it identifies the need to procure firm capacity resources for the grid's reliability. However, CUC has identified more sustainable renewable energy resources augmented by smaller quantities of firm capacity that could be procured to provide the required level of reliability to the grid for the summer peak demand season in 2027.
If accepted, this submission will allow the NEP targets to be realized and substantially reduce consumer costs. In August 2021, CUC submitted a proposal for utility-scale solar combined with battery storage to add “firmness” to meet the identified 2024 capacity requirement as an alternative to a CON for firm diesel capacity. The Company received approval for this alternate request from the regulator, with the generation to be procured through a competitive bid process. Any renewable energy resources added under the 2021 request will reduce the amount needed to be procured to satisfy this CON.
In July 2023, Grand Cayman reached a historic peak load of 124.1 megawatts (“MW”) of energy demand. This historic peak was exceeded in May 2024 when a new peak load of 127.9 MW was registered. Peak demand in August 2021 was 113.5 MW.
In recognition of the changing and growing need for energy on Grand Cayman, the submitted CON calls for a combination of 36.1 MW of firm capacity and 100 MW of solar plus storage to be connected by June 1st, 2027.
Should the Company’s certificate of need be accepted, procurement of the proposed resources will reduce consumer costs and meet or exceed the incremental NEP 2027 targets, allowing for 39% of renewable energy penetration to be achieved by 2027 and a 28% reduction in 2019 CO2 emissions.