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

GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, Aug. 5, 2025 /CNW/ - Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. ("CUC") is committed to advancing the renewable energy transition, ensuring it is secure, affordable, and beneficial for households, businesses, and communities.

On August 1, 2025, CUC and the Cayman Islands Utility Regulation and Competition Office ("URCO") agreed on an approach to address the urgent need for additional generating capacity requirements for Grand Cayman. As part of this agreement, CUC has voluntarily withdrawn its Certificate of Need ("CON") originally submitted on June 7, 2024. Concurrently, URCO has rescinded its Final Determination issued on April 24, 2025.

CUC will submit a new CON to URCO by September 5, 2025. This updated submission will define the generation resource requirements necessary to support Grand Cayman's projected energy demand from 2027 onward.

CUC and URCO have also agreed that Condition 31 of CUC's Transmission and Distribution ("T&D") Licence, does not preclude the provision of firm capacity generation from renewable sources. Both parties have acknowledged that hybrid solar photovoltaic systems integrated with battery storage may qualify as firm capacity, subject to Effective Load Carrying Capacity analysis.

In addition, both parties are actively engaged in the modernization of the CUC Transmission and Distribution Licence to align with evolving regulatory, infrastructure, and operational needs.  Both parties will apply all reasonable efforts to finalize this process, including establishing milestone dates and deliverables to be agreed upon as soon as practicable.

In support of the broader diversification of Grand Cayman's energy portfolio, URCO issued a Dispatchable Photovoltaic Request for Proposals on July 3, 2025. All eligible bidders, including CUC, are invited to submit proposals by October 2, 2025. This initiative represents an important step in expanding distributed renewable generation capacity.

"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.

ABOUT CARIBBEAN UTILITIES COMPANY, LTD. Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. ("CUC" or the "Company") is the sole provider of electricity to Grand Cayman. The principal activity of the Company is to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in its licence area of Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, pursuant to a 20-year Transmission & Distribution ("T&D") Licence and a 25-year non-exclusive Generation Licence (the "Generation License" and together with the T&D Licence, the "Licences") granted by the Cayman Islands Government (the "Government", "CIG"). The T&D Licence, which expires in April 2028, contains provisions for an automatic 20-year renewal and the Company has reasonable expectation of renewal until April 2048. The Generation Licence expires in November 2039. Further information is available at www.cuc-cayman.com.

Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. ("CUC" or "the Company"), on occasion, includes forward-looking statements in its media releases, Canadian securities regulatory authorities filings, shareholder reports and other communications. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plan", "believes", "estimates", "intends", "targets", "projects", "forecasts", "schedule", or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would" and "could".  Forward-looking statements are based on underlying assumptions and management's beliefs, estimates and opinions, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations generally that may cause actual results to vary from plans, targets and estimates. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to operational, general economic, market and business conditions, regulatory developments and weather conditions. CUC cautions readers that actual results may vary significantly from those expected should certain risks or uncertainties materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect.  Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future.  Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law.

SOURCE Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd.

Letitia Lawrence, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Phone: [phone], Email: [email protected]