Public consultations were today launched over the future of electricity supply on the island.

The Regulatory Authority said the public consultations were a “an important and key opportunity” for business and individuals to provide their views on the type and content of new electricity sector licences.

The consultations cover the transmission, distribution and sale of power with Belco as the monopoly provider, with a key focus on areas like a ban on cross-subsidies between Belco and its parent Ascendant and non-discriminatory access by power producers, both renewable and non-renewable, to the Belco power grid.

A second strand of the consultations will look at bulk generation of electricity, which includes a standard licence and a renewable class licence.

That will consider cost-effective procurement of new generating capacity, financial sustainability and security of supply among the areas looked at.

A spokesman for RAB said: “The authority views these public consultations and the related proposed draft electricity licences as an important first phase in ensuring that Bermuda’s residents and businesses benefit from an electricity sector that is independently and effectively regulated with the attendant economic and national benefits that will bring.”

The consultation documents can be found on the authority’s website at http://www.rab.bm/index.php/k2-information/ele-consultations.

?Responses should be filed electronically in MS Word or Adobe Acrobat format.

Those filing comments should go to the Authority’s website, www.rab.bm, follow the link to the consultations page, and click the “click here to submit response” icon to make an online response.

?People can also make submissions by e-mail at electricity@rab.bm, or by mail to c/o Nigel Burgess, Regulatory Authority, 1st Floor, Craig Appin House, 8 Wesley Street, Hamilton, HM11.

?All comments should be clearly marked “response to consultation document, and comments on the relevant licence and should otherwise comply with Rules 18 and 30 of RAB’s interim administrative rules, which are posted on the authority’s website.

Any communications outside of the process set out in the consultation documents may be considered ex parte and later published on the authority’s website.