Attorney Tricia Watson will be challenging the Fair Trading Commission’s (FTC) latest approval of a Barbados Light & Power Company (BLPC) application to recover costs from customers.
The former senator, who was one of five intervenors to the December 2025 BLPC application for the pre-approved recovery of the costs of synchronous condensers (SCOs) through the Clean Energy Transition Rider, last night signalled her intention to do so.
“I will be challenging this decision. It sets a dangerous precedent for ratepayers, for our utility regulator and for fair decision-making processes by government bodies in Barbados. It cannot be allowed to stand,” she said in a statement following the FTC decision dated August 14, 2026.
‘Breaks important rules’
Watson believes the FTC’s ruling on the SCO “is wrong” and she claimed that it breaks important rules the FTC is supposed to follow.
Her view was that the FTC “has no legal authority to ‘pre-approve’ investments for an electricity company”.
“This is really a rate case. Barbados Light and Power is asking for permission to charge consumers for the cost of these synchronous condensers. Calling it a ‘pre-approval’ doesn’t change what it is,” she asserted.
Watson said, secondly, that BLPC only made its final submission in the application, which revealed an estimated 90 per cent increase in capital expenditure, after the deadline for the intervenors’ final submissions.
“Even after this dramatic price change, the FTC never gave intervenors a chance to respond.
That’s not a fair process and flies in the face of natural justice,” she charged.
Watson said the most concerning aspect of the FTC decision was that the regulator “will have approved this very high-cost investment without knowing the final cost of it”.
$40 million She asked: “Is it the $40 million amount that BLPC used in its 2021 application? Is it the $78 million, from this current application? Or the $150 million revised figure that Barbados Light and Power sprung on intervenors after our final submissions? Nobody knows – including the FTC.” Watson said the decision, if allowed to stand, “is effectively an FTC promise to Barbados Light and Power that it will approve charging this money on our electricity bills”.
The attorney added: “Fourth, there’s a serious timing problem here. The decision is dated August 14 but the FTC didn’t send it to intervenors until August 20. We have 14 business days to file a review and the FTC’s delay has already used up about a third of that time. “A review isn’t just a letter; it’s a serious legal submission that takes real time to prepare properly.”
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