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Global Energy Alliance for people and planet
Case study 2
Barbados island grid reliability and alliance-building Barbados faces energy challenges common to small island developing countries (SIDS): an isolated grid and full dependence on imported fossil fuels. To secure its energy future, Barbados is pursuing an ambitious goal to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. With the rapid expansion of solar capacity, the national grid has struggled to manage fluctuations in generation. Without storage, variable solar energy has led to curtailment and system instability. BESS offers a means to improve grid stability, absorb more renewable energy and reduce reliance on fossil fuel generation. Barbados officials needed support to launch the country’s first grid-scale BESS tender, including new regulatory tools, commercial models and convening support to design a competitive procurement process in a context where experience with utility-scale storage had not existed. Global Energy Alliance played a pivotal role in enabling Barbados to design and launch its first competitive procurement for battery storage. Working with RELP, a key partner and the transaction advisor, Global Energy Alliance stepped in as a convener and technical funder, aligning the Ministry of Energy, the regulator (FTC), the utility (BLPC) and other partners including RAP, NREL, IDB and WBG. We financed advisors, coordinated regulatory working groups and supported the creation of the Clean Energy Transition Rider (CETR), a new cost recovery mechanism. Together, these efforts laid the foundation for a 60MW competitive tender launched in late 2024, expandable to 150MW by 2026.
Global Energy Alliance’s contribution to the Barbados BESS cluster: Pivotal In Barbados, while other actors contributed technical studies or financial modelling, the Alliance was the only institution that supported the project end-toend — as a trusted convener, strategic coordinator and technical funder. The Alliance funded key advisors (RAP and NREL), aligned support from multilateral institutions (IDB and IFC) and coordinated the regulatory and policy engagement needed to build momentum. These actions helped Barbados shift the BESS project from early stage planning to a fully operational procurement framework. Public officials credited Global Energy Alliance with accelerating the process and bridging institutional gaps, making it possible to develop a viable storage pipeline and to launch the country’s first competitive battery storage tender.
The tender gave Barbados its first practical framework for storage investment and showed that the model can work. The process was unprecedented for the island. It introduced a build-own-operate (BOO) model, tariff clarity through CETR and transparent procurement documents. Stakeholders described Global Energy Alliance as the “glue” that kept ministries, regulators and financiers aligned.