12092022 BUSINESS

Sears admits misleading House on BPL fuel hedge

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A “NEW food production model” will aid up to 57,000 poverty-stricken Bahamians through the location of ten hydroponic container farms “in poor and vulnerable communities”, it has been revealed.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in documents seen by Tribune Business, discloses that it is partnering with the Bahamian entrepreneurs behind BRON International and Eeden Farms, Lincoln Deal and Carlos Palacious, on an $800,000 initiative that is designed to combat “food insecurity” driven by rising prices and import dependency.

Mr Palacious declined to comment when contacted by this newspaper, referring it to the IDB on the grounds that the project has yet to

be approved. However, the papers obtained reveal that one of the project’s goals is that 50 percent (five) of the ten hydroponic container farms will be “women-led”.

Messrs Deal and Palacious have been pioneering this form of farming in The Bahamas, which is seen as a critical counter to extreme weather and climate-related events plus the “high pH” or alkaline levels in the country’s soil which makes land unsuitable for commercial farming.

“The main objective of the project is to build the capacity of small farmers, particularly women, in vulnerability conditions in The Bahamas to migrate to a new food production model which is based on increasing energy conservation and strengthening the provision of food for at-risk communities,” the IDB paper said.

“The project will produce a series of world-class, roboticsenabled, climate resilient and solar powered hydroponic container farms (stationed in

poor and vulnerable communities) that will produce fresh fruits, vegetables and organic leafy greens.

“This technology has been tried, tested, and proven under the umbrella of Eeden Farms, and has produced thousands of pounds of fresh leafy greens which are currently being sold to the wider population. Eeden Farms currently has several key formal agreements with major hotels and restaurants in The Bahamas where they supply organic greens.”

The use of solar energy to power the hydroponic container farms was billed as further reducing The Bahamas’ carbon footprint, while also building resilience and adaptability to climate change. “The locally produced organic produce will help improve food security in the country by making quality fresh produce available yearround even in the occurrence

SEE PAGE B4

Bahamian bank, chair under US senate scrutiny on FTX

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN bank and trust company, and its chairman, are coming under increasing scrutiny by US senators over their links to FTX and other entities owned by the collapsed crypto currency exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith, in December 7, 2022, letters to US financial services regulators including Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, have raised multiple questions about the level of oversight applied to an $11.5m investment by Mr Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research, in the country’s 26th smallest bank.

That bank, Farmington State Bank, which was subsequently renamed Moonstone Bank, is headed by Jean Chalopin, also chairman of Lyford Cay-based Deltec Bank & Trust. While there is nothing to suggest they have done anything wrong, senators Warren and Smith told Mr Powell that Moonstone and Deltec are just two financial institutions to come under

scrutiny over their ties to crypto currencies and digital assets following FTX’s implosion last month.

The duo, voicing concern about growing ties between the traditional banking and crypto currency industries, focused on the $11.5m investment made by Alameda Research in Moonstone Bank, located in Washington

SEE PAGE B2

‘We didn’t have $40m for fuel hedge trades’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE GOVERNMENT and Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) last year lacked the $40m in free cash needed to finance cutprice oil purchases that would have saved electricity consumers millions, it was argued yesterday.

Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk publicly, told Tribune Business the cash-strapped position at both the Public Treasury and BPL when the Davis administration took office in September 2021 meant there was simply

no liquidity available to finance the acquisition of more below-market oil to further underpin BPL’s fuel hedge.

While the Opposition has attacked the Government failure to execute the trades for costing Bahamian businesses and households more than $100m through higher electricity costs they did not have to incur, this newspaper was told that this does not account for the bigger picture BPL faced at that time with a $246m loan due to mature in February 2022 and no funds to repay it.

Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial

PAGE B3

BPL’s solar drive targets $30m consumer savings

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Power & Light’s (BPL) chief executive yesterday said the utility could create $30m per year in savings when its proposed 60 Mega Watt (MW) solar project for New Providence becomes operational.

Shevonn Cambridge said the facility will slash BPL’s fuel costs and result in “lower charges” for consumers. “The 60 MW project is anticipated to be a utility-scale facility, and that will feed into the overall grid for New Providence,”

he explained. “And, basically, the benefits of it will be felt by all consumers, because what it does is the same 60 MW that we’re currently generating with conventional fossil fuel generation will now be fuel-free.

“Working simultaneously with that, a lot of people spoke to the supply chain challenges, which caused a lot of maintenance issues with the road works, the waterworks and the like. We’ve experienced the same thing in the energy sector. But now, as the supply chain channels are opening up, we’re ramping

By YOURI KEMP and NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Reporters

A CABINET minister yesterday admitted misleading Parliament by initially denying he was briefed on the Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) fuel hedging controversy that will allegedly cost households and businesses over $100m.

Alfred Sears KC, minister of works and utilities, confirmed that on October 9, 2021, he received a briefing on the rationale for executing transactions, known as “call option” trades, that would enable BPL to acquire additional cheaper fuel at below-market prices and thus keep its fuel charge - and overall electricity bills - relatively low with stable rates.

The minister, who had previously told the House of Assembly on several occasions that he never received any such advice or recommendations, added that he forwarded the e-mail briefing and attachments to the Ministry of Finance and its financial secretary, Simon Wilson, for their assessment.

Describing this as “normal” procedure for any major financial or spending decision facing the Government, Mr Sears said Mr Wilson recommended that the tradeswhich would have supported the initial BPL fuel hedge implemented in summer 2020 by increasing the utility’s stock of cheaper fuelnot be executed.

The minister added that despite BPL’s thenBoard and management trying their “hardest

Bahamian bank, chair under US senate scrutiny on FTX

the US senators quoted a former president of the Independent Community Bankers of America as saying: “The fact that an offshore hedge fund, that was basically a crypto firm, was buying a stake in a tiny bank for multiples of its stated book value should have raised massive red flags for the FDIC., state regulators and the Federal Reserve... It’s just astonishing that all of this got approved.”

Ms Warren and Ms Smith added: “FTX is not Moonstone Bank’s only crypto connection. In fact, Moonstone’s parent company, FBH Corp, is headed by the chair of Bahamas-based Deltec Bank, a bank service provider to Tether, a stablecoin issuer and one of FTX’s largest trading partners.

“According to CoinTelegraph: ‘After buying the [nearly 100-year-old] bank in 2020, FBH [a vehicle headed by Mr Chalopin] applied for Federal Reserve approval ... to facilitate cryptocurrencyrelated transactions. The bank got federal approval in June 2021, and nine months later, FTX invested in the rural bank, now equipped with Federal Reserve approval’.

“Moonstone and Deltec are just two of several banks to have their crypto ties come under scrutiny in the FTX fallout,” the two US senators added. “Banks’ relationships with crypto firms raise questions about the safety and soundness of our banking system, and highlight potential loopholes that crypto firms may try to exploit to gain further access to banks.

“In the case of Moonstone, FTX’s investment could be ‘seen as a move to bypass the requirements of owning a banking license in the US’. We now know that FTX also had ‘accessed regulated banks otherwise out of reach to the crypto exchange’ by receiving customer deposits through Alameda’s bank accounts.”

A Deltec Bank & Trust spokesperson previously denied to Tribune Business that the Bahamian institution has any links or ties to Moonstone or the $11.5m investment by Mr BankmanFried’s Alameda Research.

“Deltec Bank has no business or banking relationships with Farmington State Bank (doing business as Moonstone Bank),” they said.

“The only reason Deltec Bank has been mentioned in recent media is due to common shareholdings through businessman Jean Chalopin.” However, the growing scrutiny by US senators will be an unwelcome development for both Deltec and Mr Chalopin who have been trying feverishly to distance themselves from FTX’s collapse and Mr Bankman-Fried.

However, this newspaper previously reported that FTX and entities controlled by Mr Bankman-Fried held no fewer than 17 accounts with Deltec Bank & Trust.

Documents produced by John Ray, the newlyappointed chief executive for FTX Trading, disclosed that the latter entity held just one account at Deltec.

However, a further nine were said to be in the name of Alameda Research, the trading/hedge fund entity controlled by Mr BankmanFried, and which is thought to have played a central role in the crypto exchange’s week-long implosion.

The remaining seven Deltec accounts were in the name of West Realm Shires Services, a Delaware-based entity also majority-controlled by Mr Bankman-Fried together with fellow FTX co-founder, Gary Wang, and the crypto exchange’s engineering head, Nishad Singh. The 17 Deltec accounts were held in a variety of currencies, including US dollars, euros, Swiss francs, Canadian and Australian dollars, and the UK pound sterling.

Mr Chalopin, who initially made his fortune as the creator of the Inspector Gadget

cartoons, also enabled the Albany project in south-west New Providence by selling a key estate parcel to its developers that was often referred to as the property behind ‘the long pink wall’. He was among the speakers at the Crypto Bahamas conference that was staged by Mr Bankman-Fried and FTX earlier this year.

Deltec, which has aggressively embraced the digital assets evolution by setting up its Delchain subsidiary to target this area, has fought hard to distance itself from FTX and Mr Bankman-Fried since the crypto currency exchange imploded. It has vigorously denied that its purchase of Ansbacher (Bahamas), which closed at end-March 2022, was funded at least in part with financing from FTX.

The bank then doubled down on this position with a November 14, 2022, statement that remains posted to its website. “FTX did not provide any services to or hold any assets for the bank,” it reiterated. “Deltec Bank does not hold or trade any digital assets for its own account or on behalf of its clients. Therefore, there is no credit or asset exposure by the bank to FTX.”

However, the US senator duo asked Mr Powell whether Alameda Research’s investment in Moonstone meant it now ‘controlled’ the bank under US banking laws, and if it had made the necessary application for Federal Reserve approval.

They also questioned the nature of FTX and Alameda Research’s business relationship with both Moonstone and FBH Corp, the entity headed by Mr Chalopin, as well as the source of the $11.5m invested. Further queries were raised over how much of Moonstone’s business was coming from FTX and Alameda Research.

‘We didn’t have $40m for fuel hedge trades’

secretary, declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business yesterday after Alfred Sears KC, minister of works and utilities, said that it was upon his and that ministry’s recommendations that the fuel hedging trades were not executed (see other article Page 1B).

However, well-placed sources said there were some “fundamental points” justifying the Ministry of Finance’s advice to policymakers not to execute the trades that were being strongly advocated for by BPL’s then-Board and management. These concerns related to the availability of necessary financing, as well as the actual design of the hedge and the costs associated with it and the actual transaction.

The Davis administration was said to have taken office with the Government faced with a “severe liquidity crunch” as a result of the debt and fiscal deficit blow-out produced by Hurricane Dorian and COVID. Besides the $40m required to fund the latest hedgingrelated trades, BPL also had “no financing in place to satisfy that obligation” coming due with the $246m loan.

“The primary focus at the tine was to make sure BPL fulfilled its obligations,” one contact said. “The cost of the transaction and the premium was around $40m. That was not an inexpensive proposition.

In September, October, November, December, January and February, the first six months of the new administration, if you look at those fiscal challenges, did it have $40m lying around to place in a hedge? The answer is no.”

Interest and penalties on BPL’s $246m loan from Credit Suisse were said to have been increasing every month, making it urgent that this either be repaid or refinanced. Some $186m was refinanced, with a further $84m (including interest and penalties) funded from “reserves”.

That latter sum would not have been raised, it was argued, if that $40m had been invested in fuel hedging.

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“You could go and do that hedge and be in default on the loan,” one source added. “There was no money. To make the argument that [the hedge] was the right decision ignores the reality facing everyone that there was simply no money for that. The best use of scarce resources was to make sure the Government and BPL met their obligations. The second best use was to bring online more efficient engines. The hedge does not solve BPL’s problems.”

This narrative, though, was yesterday challenged by sources familiar with developments involving BPL’s fuel hedging initiative around the time that the Davis administration took office in September 2021.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they argued that there was no link between the fuel hedging and the $246m loan coming due for maturity.

Pointing out that BPL was paying all the interest costs and penalties for

non-payment associated with the loan, they argued that it had not been costing the Government “anything”. And, if the Davis administration had followed through with the $535m Rate Reduction Bond (RRB) refinancing of BPL’s legacy debt and liabilities, as left behind by its predecessor, the $246m loan would have been paid off and be a non-issue.

BPL’s fuel hedging initiative, rather than being a gamble or bet, as some have portrayed, was designed by the utility’s former Board and management as a mechanism to counter global oil market volatility and spikes by providing stable, predictable fuel charges and rates for consumers. It was designed to give the utility, and its consumers, some breathing room while they waited for the bond refinancing and new power plant deal with Shell North America.

The status of the latter two initiatives remains unclear, although the bond

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appears to have been put on the shelf for now - at least until global market conditions improve. The fuel hedge was thus part of a much wider strategy designed to transform BPL, and which Tribune Business understands was presented to Mr Sears upon taking ministerial office so that he was aware of all key issues facing the utility.

The timing of the general election, and new government taking office, has had consequences for Bahamian households and businesses as a result of the decision not to execute the trades and resulting impact on electricity costs. It admittedly placed the Davis administration in a tough spot, having to make a quick decision on a vital issue as it was still being briefed and getting to grips with the machinery of government.

However, it has since emerged that the Prime Minister and Mr Sears received a full briefing on the matter by BPL’s

then-Board and management, which is backed by documents obtained by this newspaper, yet opted to go with the contradictory position taken by Mr Wilson and the Ministry of Finance.

One source said of the ministry’s objections: “They said it was costing the Government money, which it wasn’t. They said it was a bad strategy, but never clarified what that meant. They also said it was giving a subsidy to rich people and hotels, which made no sense, because under the Electricity Act you have to pass the fuel charge on to customers equally.”

The cut-price oil purchases, known as call options, were overseen and monitored by the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) trading desk which advised BPL when suitably-priced fuel became available. The hedging was underwritten by the Government’s existing credit facilities with the IDB, including the

“contingent loan for natural disasters”. There were conflicting accounts yesterday of whether there was sufficient room under this facility to finance the September 2021 trades.

However, sources close to the Minnis administration said this was never raised as an issue. And a draft Cabinet paper, dated September 30, 2021, made clear the hedging initiative cost the Government and Bahamian taxpayers nothing as all costs were supposed to be passed on to BPL. The utility, in turn, treats its fuel costs as a pass-through, meaning the bill is ultimately picked up by its electricity consumers. And Whitney Heastie, BPL’s then-chief executive, told Mr Sears in an October 18, 2021, letter that the fuel hedging initiative was on track to save BPL and its consumers more than $54m over the 18 months to January 2022 if the trades continued to be executed to backfill the utility’s inventory of cut-price fuel.

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FARMING MODEL’ TO AID 57,000 TRAPPED IN POVERTY

of hurricanes, pandemics or global supply chain disruptions,” the IDB report added.

“The strategic positioning of the farms (in poor and vulnerable communities)

will act as a direct economic stimulant for those communities, providing lower prices for food produced [and] creating equal purchasing power and access to affordable and nutritious food, sold directly to consumers.

“While robotic enabled, the farms require human capital which will result in creating much-needed job opportunities, particularly for women from low income backgrounds and underserved communities. These women will be empowered to become the food producers The Bahamas needs to secure a healthy, nutritious and affordable diet to its more vulnerable communities.”

The report added that “as the produce is grown locally, it will be sold below current imported food market prices, making it more affordable to poor and vulnerable communities”. It identified the main beneficiaries from the IDB’s partnership with BRON/ Eeden Farms as being “poor and food insecure populations” within The Bahamas.

“The main beneficiaries of the project are ten farms, of which at least 50 percent are women-led,” the IDB said. “Specific outreach will also be made to more disadvantaged groups in vulnerable communities.

Most recent data from the United Nations Development Programme in 2017 suggests that 15 percent, or 56,500 persons, live below the poverty line in poor and vulnerable communities.

“The Bahamas’ poverty rate is mainly attributed to the country’s high level of unemployment. Currently, a shocking 14 percent of its citizens are unemployed due to the shock that the tourist sector had after COVID. Women were particularly affected by the lack of employment.” The report also highlights the stark income inequalities still prevalent in Bahamian society, and which have likely been made worse by the pandemic’s impact.

Pointing out that poverty is directly tied to food insecurity and diet/nutritional quality, the IDB paper added: “Food products in The Bahamas come with a noticeable price tag. This is because the island imports nearly 90 percent of these items. Expensive food prices not only affect the economy and any employment opportunities arising from local agriculture, but also alienate those who cannot afford these food prices.

“As a result, food insecurity in The Bahamas is a significant issue that requires addressing.

According to Hands for Hunger, one in every 10 people in The Bahamas experience extreme food insecurity and have less than $4 to spend on food a day. This prevalence is significant because only 10 percent of the food consumed is produced in The Bahamas.

“A study by The Caribbean Agro-Economic Society concluded 41 percent of households were food insecure, and factors such as age, education and gender all played a factor.

Around 20 percent of households required assistance from the Government to provide adequate food to their families. It also concluded that people take an active role in producing at least one aspect of their food, revealing a reported 45 percent caught their own fish.”

Vulnerable, low income Bahamians are “largely at the mercy” of imported food prices, with the International Trade Association reporting in 2019 that 90 percent of this nation’s food needs - collectively worth some $632m - were imported. Inflation will have driven that number much higher following the COVID pandemic.

“As a result, the increase in fuel, manufacturing/energy costs and

associated import costs are traditionally passed on to the consumer, affecting the purchasing power and access to affordable food, particularly for those in poor and vulnerable communities, including women, children, and migrants, particularly those from Haiti,” the IDB report said.

“It also often puts Bahamians in a position where they may not have consistent access to quality food and food products..... There is a need to change the food production system in The Bahamas by utilising innovative technologies to help spur productivity, efficiency and climate resilience.”

Revealing that the project will create a data platform to link agriculture producers to retailers, the IDB added: “At the outcome level, the project targets 15 farms to be trained and ten farms that will migrate to the new production model promoted by the project; 240,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions reduced using solar panels provided for the project, 20 retailers in vulnerable communities that will access locally produced foods through the Agritech Digital Data Platform.”

Sears admits misleading House on BPL fuel hedge

to persuade” the Government to proceed with the oil purchases, the financial secretary’s advice won the day and the trades were never executed. Mr Sears did not explain why the Davis administration took the Ministry of Finance’s position over that of the former BPL Board and management, which had been responsible for implementing the fuel hedge in summer 2020.

Mr Wilson, too, declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business to explain the justification for not proceeding with the trades (see other article Page 1B). However, under the Westminster system of government employed by The Bahamas, it would be virtually impossible - and highly irregular - for a civil servant such as the financial secretary to make the key decision on a matter involving sums reaching into the tens of millions of dollars.

While Mr Wilson and the Ministry of Finance would have submitted advice and recommendations, the decision on whether or not to proceed with the fuel hedging trades would almost certainly have been taken at the policymaker or ministerial level by either the full Cabinet or a Cabinet committee based on the briefings received.

Thus it should have been the Prime Minister, Mr Sears and their Cabinet colleagues ultimately making the judgment call, which their political opponents claim will cost Bahamian businesses and households a combined $100m over the

course of 2023 via soaring electricity bills that need not have been incurred if the fuel hedging trades were executed.

The fuel charge component of BPL bills is set to increase by up to 163 percent compared to the stable 10.5 cents per kilowatt (KwH) enjoyed by the utility’s customers for the just over two-year period to October 2022. Without the cut-priced fuel produced by those trades, BPL had increasingly been purchasing its oil at spot market prices from late 2021 onwards but not passing the full cost on to customers - in contravention of the Electricity Act regulations - for some months.

With BPL’s mounting debts to Shell, its fuel supplier, increasingly unsustainable, the Government has reached an agreement to pay the global oil giant $90m over a nine-month period at $10m per month. It is this payment, and BPL’s huge hiking of the fuel charge to recover this debt and government loans previously made to support the 10.5 KwH price, that has prompted Opposition charges that the Davis administration has cost the Bahamian people over $100m.

Meanwhile, explaining why he misspoke in Parliament, and gave a misleading account of events leading up to the BPL fuel hedging trades’ rejection, Mr Sears said he did not recall receiving the October 9 e-mail when first asked about it by Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader.

“I did not recall having received that e-mail. And

I stated that I wrote BPL, and I also wrote the PS (permanent secretary), and I asked: ‘Could you refresh me and did I receive it?’ I didn’t get a response, a confirmation,” he added.

“For several weeks, I was in New York, and I took a day and I brought my old iPad. I went back personally and did a search, and I found that I did receive - I think it was on October 9 - I did receive an e-mail with the attachments. It would have gone on to be sent on to the financial secretary, which is normal because they are the technical review in terms of financial clearance. It really was to access a loan which is managed by the Ministry of Finance.”

Mr Sears said that, having realised his mistake, he had a duty to correct the record in the House of Assembly.

“The Leader of the Opposition made the allegation again,” he said. “I could not sit there, knowing that the first representation I had made was not correct and, as is my duty, I got up and I stated on the record of the House of Assembly that I had done a search of my e-mail and I had found the e-mail of October 9, 2021, and the response of the financial secretary.

“I stated it on the record because it was incumbent upon me to correct the previous statement that I had made.” A draft Cabinet paper, prepared by the

Ministry of Finance and dated September 30, 2021, suggests that Mr Sears had also been briefed before October 9. It said: “The Ministry of Finance has also shared this Cabinet memorandum with the minister of works and utilities to provide his comments at the [Cabinet ] table.”

Philip Davis KC, the Prime Minister, said he had never seen the draft Cabinet paper or its recommendations until recently. “Matters are sent from ministries to the Ministry of Finance relating to financial clarity clearance, and it’s dealt with as a technical issue,” Mr Sears said.

“If financial clearance is rejected, it’s a technical question. It is normally sent to the financial secretary. The package that they sent included a draft Cabinet paper, but that was sent to the Ministry of Finance. The proposition that was advanced was not accepted on a technical basis.”

Mr Sears’ explanation yesterday left Mr Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, distinctly unimpressed. Renewing his call for the minister of works and utilities to resign over the House of Assembly misstatements, he argued that Mr Sears had denied being briefed on the fuel hedging trades “on eight different occasions” as the Government sought to conceal and “cover up” its bad decision before evidence was

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produced that contradicted their position.

And, voicing astonishment at the implication that Mr Wilson was making the decisions, Mr Pintard said: “It just does not happen. That’s just the reality. The financial secretary is unable make that multimillion dollar judgment call. The Prime Minister has admitted to making the decision.... He and Alfred Sears are trying to get on the same page.”

He pointed out that the fuel hedging trades decision was “a two-step process” where Mr Wilson and the Ministry of Finance supplied advice and recommendations but, ultimately, in The Bahamas’ system of governance, the decision would have been made by the Cabinet-level politicians.

“It has to be said in the strongest terms that the Prime Minister admitted he received the advice from the financial secretary, the minister received the advice, and then they made

a decision on the basis of that advice,” Mr Pintard said. “The Government does not have the luxury, and huge is going to allow them to slip out of the fact they denied receiving the very recommendations, advice or briefing that they have now been exposed as receiving.”

Having rejected the arguments of the then-BPL Board and management, he added of the Government: “After it went south and they cost the country over $100m, they then sought to conceal the fact they were given credible information that allowed them to make a sensible decision. They sought to conceal the fact they were properly briefed on this matter.”

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up our maintenance, which is going to allow us to produce power with more efficient forms of generation.

“We envision that that will also allow us... to produce more power on the cheaper fuels, and to actually have the alternative of switching between the various fuels that can be used depending on market prices.” Mr Cambridge added that BPL may “go back out to tender” on fuel suppliers to test the market for the best prices. “All of these things are working in tandem to keep the price of production down and the final costs to the end user at a minimum,” he added.

Mr Cambridge also confirmed that BPL’s $535m Rate Reduction Bond refinancing, an initiative left behind by the former Minnis administration, has been “taken off of the table” for the time being. However, he did note that the utility is “still looking at the possibility of the bond market and the opportunities that are available”.

Current global capital market conditions, dominated by rising interest rates, mean conditions are presently unfavourable for BPL to raise financing via the

bond because it would have to pay investors a higher interest coupon. That, in turn, would mean higher electricity bills for BPL’s household and business consumers.

Mr Cambridge added: “What I can tell you is that things really changed during the pandemic. That would have changed the market’s appetite for a rate reduction bond by another structure.” BPL is now looking at the “best way” to raise capital and address its $300m-plus legacy debt, but it is not looking to raise capital on the international markets at this time.

BPL is also averaging over 1,400 disconnections a month, but most of these are quickly turned around for reconnection. Mr Cambridge said: “I was asked this question by a reporter a few weeks ago, and the answer was somewhere on average we have about 1,400 to 1,500 disconnections per month. But like I said, it’s a rolling cycle. We disconnect you today and you come in tomorrow, you pay. So at any given point in time, there’s maybe 1,000 people who are disconnected.”

Alfred Sears KC, minister of works and utilities, added: “Consistent with

the Government’s policy to incorporate renewable energy sources in the power generation, the Government has approved the construction of a 60 MW solar plant to be constructed in New Providence. This project approved by the NEC (National Economic Council) is well in the design stage and in consultation with the Ministry of Works, the developer and also in consultation with BPL as well as with URCA.

“Further, the Government has borrowed from the IDB $80m for the reconstruction of critical energy infrastructure and restoration of electricity services in islands heavily affected by Hurricane Dorian, while facilitating the integration of renewable energy and various Family Islands.

“And in addition to the $80m from the IDB, the European Union (EU) has also granted $7m as a grant to support this initiative of the Government. This initiative will involve the installation of solar grids in Acklins, Crooked Island, Inagua, Mayaguana and Long Cay as well as Abaco and east Grand Bahama.”

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tracking map Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

2.2 2:51 p.m. 0.1 8:58 a.m. 2.9 2:33 a.m. 0.0 9:16 p.m. 2.1 3:31 p.m. 0.2 9:38 a.m. 2.8 3:13 a.m. 0.1 9:57 p.m. 2.1 4:11 p.m. 0.3 10:18 a.m. 2.7 3:53 a.m. 0.3 10:41 p.m. 2.0 4:53 p.m. 0.4

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11:00 a.m. 2.6 4:37 a.m. 0.5 11:28 p.m. 2.0 5:35 p.m. 0.4 11:43 a.m. 2.5 5:24 a.m. 0.6 6:19 p.m. 0.5 12:18 a.m. 2.1 6:17 a.m. 0.7 12:30 p.m. 2.4 7:03 p.m. 0.4 uV inDex toDay The higher the AccuWeather UV IndexTM number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection. Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022 H

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BAHAMAS POWER & LIGHT (BPL) HEADQUARTERS