Lower electricity bills.
A route for every household.

The central shared-solar model uses an EC$9.6m capital grant and EC$2.4m project loan. An 80% grant transfers costs to donors or the public budget; it does not make the equipment free to society. After costs and reserves, the model credit is EC$18.32 a month for each of 5,000 households. Without the grant it is EC$6.55.

The example generates 3.4 million kWh a year, sold at an assumed EC$0.515/kWh: EC$1.751m in revenue. Deduct EC$300,000 in operating and administration costs, about EC$176,600 in debt payments, and a 10% revenue reserve of EC$175,100. The remaining EC$1.099m provides about EC$18.32 monthly for 5,000 households.

Efficiency also reduces utility revenue that supports continuing grid costs. The calculation recovers that contribution before reporting universal savings. We recommend an explicit, temporary budget payment to protect nonparticipants during the initial efficiency rollout. The first full-year cash envelope is about EC$3.26m: EC$2.5m equipment, EC$0.10m upkeep and EC$0.66m transition support.

Shared solar distributes financial benefits. It does not automatically keep individual homes powered when a line fails. A microgrid needs batteries, protective equipment, controls and a safe way to disconnect from the main grid.

Prioritise that extra resilience cost at clinics, shelters, water pumps and other critical services. An illustrative EC$1m microgrid addition, annualised at 6% over 15 years plus EC$20,000 upkeep, costs about EC$123,000 a year—roughly EC$20.49 a month if divided among 500 households. That cost needs a separate resilience justification and funding source.

The July 2025 RREIIF agreement provides a signed US$29.1m IDA credit for eligible electricity infrastructure. It is repayable finance, not a free household grant. Associated concessional lending and grants have defined purposes and conditions. Check the approved workplan before counting proposed grid investments again.[19]

SLDB’s Green Climate Fund accreditation creates a route to seek finance; it is not an award for this programme. A new climate-finance proposal needs feasibility, safeguards, country approval, financial design and monitoring. Allow 18–36 months or longer rather than depending on it for the first pilot.[29]

Fund the first efficiency pilot through a clear budget or specific donor award. Use competitive utility or independent-producer finance for generation, and publish which construction, performance, fuel and demand risks investors or customers bear.

The provisional October reference is EC$0.812/kWh for the first 180 kWh and EC$0.862 thereafter, plus EC$0.415/kWh fuel adjustment. A 200 kWh example is EC$246.40. Direct access to the utility rate sheet was unavailable; this is secondary evidence, not a certified current quote. The official 2025 annual-average benchmark is EC$0.813/0.863, giving EC$163.60 at 200 kWh. No VAT uplift is added: the VAT Act zero-rates LUCELEC electricity.[1][4][35]

Start with the committed-project comparison bill. For the supported path, remove 15 kWh, apply the net additional tariff change to the remaining consumption, then deduct the shared-project credit. Recover the utility’s continuing-cost contribution in the system model. This avoids counting the same saved electricity twice.

The central model assumes 2% annual sales growth, EC$0.50/kWh avoided fuel plus EC$0.015 variable operations, a 6% resource discount rate, 25-year solar life and 0.5% annual solar degradation. Shared-project cash debt is modelled separately at 4% over 20 years. All project costs are planning assumptions in constant 2026 EC dollars.

At 200 kWh, the central incremental universal saving is EC$2.11/month in 2029 and EC$3.60 in 2033. With fuel at EC$0.35/kWh, it falls to about EC$0.55 and approximately zero. Expensive finance, cost overruns, lower output and battery replacement can make a package uneconomic.

The combined downside—low fuel prices, 10% financing, 25% higher generation capital costs, 15% lower output and higher battery lifecycle cost—raises modelled system charges. That is a reason to reject, resize or reprice an investment, not a cost to hide. Low output and a smaller grant also cut shared credits. No later project should be treated as an automatic commitment.

• The dated tariff sheet, final Electricity Act, commencement and implementing instruments.
• Current audited fuel accounts and the monthly fuel, sales and purchased-power ledger.
• Troumassee’s final price, financing, augmentation costs and dispatch case.
• Hourly demand, generation efficiency, reserve needs, hosting capacity and curtailment studies.
• Measured household savings, current local quotations and confirmed grant allocations.
• Resource tests and full commercial terms for geothermal, wind, LNG or shore power.

The Energy Sovereignty & Local Ownership Compact sets the broader direction: less imported fuel, resilient services and local participation. This guide adds the household bill calculation, a route for people without capital and a stricter test for each increment of storage or generation.

Read this alongside the household recovery analysis, water service and affordability work and Soufrière’s geothermal context. Lower electricity costs, reliable water pumping and household resilience are connected, but each needs its own measured result.