OfReg opens bid for 23MW solar plant
(CNS): The utilities regulator is looking for expressions of interest from qualified bidders to build a dispatchable solar photovoltaic (DPV) plant and an energy storage facility. The quest for this new plant is part of the country’s efforts to reduce its diesel dependence and a step towards the extremely ambitious target of generating 70% of Grand Cayman’s electricity through renewables within the next fifteen years. The successful bidder will be required to sell the power it generates to CUC.
This procurement exercise, which opened last week and closes on 20 May, is in the first instance an opportunity for companies capable of building the plant to demonstrate their qualifications before a full bid is made for the job and a company is selected to build the plant, which must be operational no later than 1 May 2024.
OfReg said that it will evaluate the responses and then develop an approved list of qualified bidders. Only those on the list will be allowed to bid on the requested generating capacity of 23 megawatts. Whoever secures the contract will need to negotiate a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the sale of the output of the generating capacity to CUC in its role as the transmission and distribution licensee.
But as a generation licensee, CUC will also be permitted to compete on the bid. CUC is responsible for providing adequate and reliable reserve electric capacity and energy for Grand Cayman customers, and OfReg said it has prepared a preliminary technical operational specification for this project to demonstrate the need for the additional reserve generation resources.
All of the potential bidders must demonstrate prior experience in developing this type of generation, according to the documents, including evidence of the success of those projects and how that will translate to the Cayman Islands.
The first, and so far only, utility-scale solar project in the Cayman Islands, which opened in 2017, generates just 5MW of energy to CUC. This new project will be more than four times the size of the existing Bodden Town plant, which was originally built and owned by Entropy. According to a 2018 report, that company failed to make a profit on the project before selling it on to BMR, a company owned by Richard Branson.
Following the problems surrounding that project, the utilities regulator will be hoping that lessons have been learned to ensure that this time things go more smoothly. Its report at the time revealed a budget overrun of $2 million. It also found that the project was delivered six months behind schedule and energy production was less than estimated because of ‘unfavourable weather’ as well as inverter faults and software fine-tuning, all during the first few months of operation.
The teething problems throughout the project appeared to be due to a lack of experience and previous knowledge in the field. With no established procedures in place, CUC had looked for a solar partner, and OfReg found the process was developed as things went along.
It appears that this time around the regulator is at least trying to ensure that whoever wins this bid will have demonstrated they are capable of delivering on the project before the contract is signed.
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Category: Business, Energy, Politics, Private Sector Oversight, Science & Nature, utilities
This is big enough to affect rainfall. Will there be an EIA before it is a done deal?
Here comes the Chines
You know all that indigenous bush area around the Botanic Park out east? Tracts of unspoilt forest with orchids and rare and wonderful tree species? Where banana quits flit and blue iguanas, freshly rescued from extinction, roam their primordal territory as they did before their habitats where threatened by development?
This is where CUC intend erecting their solar array farms- and destroying hundreds of acres of indigenous bush habitat in the process… Oh dear! Whatever will the National Conservation Council think of this ‘green’ plan?
Have you seen who owns the parcels able to object?
Private companies will submit their comprehensive proposals, none will be suitable so CUC will be invited to build the project, and will be provided the private companies information as disclosed in the proposals to prepare their own business plan.
🤣 “extremely ambitious target” that’s the understatement of the century. Never will happen!
That’s a big area needed, depending on a few factors the minimum is about 60 acres of flat, cleared connected land.
Kindly make it easier for owners in a strata to install solar panels on their roof.
I thiink that is between you & the strata.
And schools, that would be nice also.
Theoretical 23Mw capacity assuming strong summer sunny day, clean PV panel, and at high noon, but how many Mwh does this array contribute in reality in a year against diesel generators? We need to drill a couple layers down through CUC’s greenwashing. I think we will find that this doesn’t quite get us where we would like to be, and consumers pay twice.
Note to you: this is not CUC making the request. So drilling down “through CUC’s greenwashing” will reveal nothing. Ask OfReg your questions to reveal the layers you desire. I am fairly sure CUC will be a bidder. You could do so as well.
23MWp (peak) of fixed panels should produce about 35GWh a year. CUC produced 660GWh last year. Oh one more thing 23MWp is 60,000 panels or 25 acres of panels so you probably need to clear 75 acres of land for this!
Also CNS point of order, well physics really, MW are a measure of power not energy. If the Bodden Town plant is 5MWp peak power output then it should supply CUC with roughly 8GWh of energy a year.
Can government keep CUC out of it. A private company should not have full control of supplying electricity to the island – the government should have more control of this.
CUC is just killing their customers with the cost of electricity.
My March bill jumped $173.00 – using the same electricity that I have always used!
I believe that they can switch the Kwts that a customer uses – just like they can turn you off by a switch when your bill is not paid.
Compare all the details on your bill to find the difference. CUC will likely always be the retailer of electricity. Private companies will always be the producers be it CUC or others.
Are you claiming you used the same electricity but CUC have altered the meter so it reads higher? How do you know how much electricity you have used independent of your meter? Sorry but sounds like BS. CUC are publicly owned and have guaranteed profit margins, they don’t need to steal $173 off you.
To 5:24 PM – that is the reason why CUC always makes a profit – by stealing from their customers – who have no other choice but to pay their bills or get cut off.
CUC need some other competition – because they can do as they please.
Then we pay for 2 lots of infrastructure. Competition somewhere so small just doesn’t make any sense. Just look at internet service providers/cell phone provision; we pay for 3/4 lots of duplicate infrastructure and pay 3/4 times the onshore price for those services. CUC not even particularly expensive compared to the rest of the world.