Caribbean roundup: Procurement notice, net metering study, plant replacement

IDB published a general procurement notice for goods, works, related services and consultancy services to be procured under the Dominican Republic’s US$75mn energy efficiency program.

The government received US$39mn in financing from the development bank and US$36mn from the Japan International Cooperation Agency for the initiative.

The notice is available in the Documents box in the top-right corner of the screen.

Net metering study

Puerto Rico’s energy regulator PREB published a draft study on net metering (NEM) and distributed generation.

“Many states that adopted NEM as a convenient method of pricing have now moved on to different approaches that more closely align the pricing mechanisms with value… as the penetration of NEM increases, so will the need to consider alternative pricing approaches along with technical provisions that govern when and how power is exported into the grid,” according to the analysis, available in the Documents box.

Plant replacement

US Virgin Islands’ governor Albert Bryan announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will replace the Richmond power plant on St Croix and several units on St Thomas.

“The territory ascertained that the damages caused by the [2017] storms coupled with the aging of these units, which have already surpassed their useful life at over 30 years for most, with one unit on St Thomas being over 50 years old, should be replaced, not repaired,” the Water and Power Authority (WAPA) said in a statement.

WAPA added that the next step is to agree on a cost with FEMA that is estimated at US$400-600mn for the Richmond plant alone.