The Barbados Light and Power Company’s Director of Finance has suggested that it is likely to go back to the regulators for a new rate hike if it is unable to get the 12.5 per cent increase being sought now.Ricaido Jennings put this position to the Fair Trading Commission’s rate hearing on day eight of the proceedings which are considering a request from his company for an increase in electricity rates.Jennings was testifying on Friday when he defended the possibility of seeking another hike. He said even if the current application is successful, the BLPC will still be challenged with how it is going to earn its returns.He said the company was under-earning with a rate of return on investment of eight per cent - excluding the impact of a tax in 2018 - and in light of the 10 per cent that was approved by the FTC previously. He identified a number of factors that would have contributed to the BLPC not achieving the 10 per cent to justify the request for an increase.“If you exclude the impact of the tax in 2018, the rate of return is near eight per cent. In 2019 you are under 10 for sure. By then in 2019, we entered construction of a clean energy bridge which is a significant amount of investment and you are not able to earn your return in 2019 even without the clean energy bridge.
