Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. Announces Agreed Path Forward for Grand Cayman's Energy Future

Executive Summary

• Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. (CUC) and the Cayman Islands Utility Regulation and Competition Office (URCO) have agreed on a path forward for Grand Cayman's energy future, specifically addressing urgent generating capacity requirements.
• CUC has voluntarily withdrawn its original Certificate of Need (CON) submitted in June 2024, and URCO has rescinded its Final Determination from April 2025.
• CUC is required to submit a new CON by September 5, 2025, defining generation resource requirements to support energy demand from 2027 onward.

Key Details

• Regulatory Withdrawals: CUC withdrew its Certificate of Need (CON) originally submitted on June 7, 2024. Concurrently, URCO rescinded its Final Determination issued on April 24, 2025.
• New Submission Deadline: CUC must submit a new CON to URCO by September 5, 2025. This submission will define generation resource requirements necessary to support Grand Cayman's projected energy demand from 2027 onward.
• Renewable Capacity Definition: Both parties agreed that Condition 31 of CUC's Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Licence does not preclude firm capacity generation from renewable sources. Hybrid solar photovoltaic systems integrated with battery storage may qualify as firm capacity, subject to Effective Load Carrying Capacity analysis.
• License Modernization: Both parties are actively engaged in modernizing the CUC T&D Licence to align with evolving regulatory, infrastructure, and operational needs. They will establish milestone dates and deliverables as soon as practicable.
• Dispatchable PV RFP: URCO issued a Dispatchable Photovoltaic Request for Proposals on July 3, 2025. Eligible bidders, including CUC, are invited to submit proposals by October 2, 2025, to expand distributed renewable generation capacity.
• Reliability Metrics: CUC reports an average annual interruption duration now under 2 hours, which is in line with North American benchmarks.

Notable Quotes

• "We are proud of our strong track record of continuous improvement in reliability with our average annual interruption duration now under 2 hours, and in line with North American benchmarks. We are dedicated to maintaining and improving energy reliability and resilience as we transition to Grand Cayman's clean energy future. The CUC team is fully committed to working closely with URCO to ensure that affordability, reliability, and safety remain at the heart of our clean energy transformation," said President and CEO, Mr. Richard Hew.