Nicholas Pushes Back on Opposition’s ‘Unlimited Rooftop Solar’ Proposal, Warns of Risks to APUA
Information Technology Minister Melford Nicholas pushed back during the Budget Debate against the Opposition’s call to allow households to install large, unrestricted rooftop solar systems, arguing that such a policy would destabilise the electricity grid and undermine APUA’s ability to operate.
Nicholas said the Leader of the Opposition had promoted a policy that would permit homeowners to install as much solar generation as they wished, including systems in the 25 to 30 kilowatt range.
He described that approach as financially unsound, pointing out that APUA remains bound by a long-term agreement with Antigua Power Company until 2031 and must maintain a stable grid that can meet national demand at all hours.
He noted that approximately two-thirds of APUA’s revenue is spent on fuel purchases for electricity generation. Under those circumstances, he argued, a sudden surge of oversized private solar systems feeding inconsistent power into the grid could leave the utility unable to cover its financial obligations.
Nicholas raised the scenario of heavy daytime solar input followed by sharp drops at night, saying the utility must still maintain full generation capacity for periods when sunlight is unavailable.
As an alternative to what he described as a “reckless” approach, Nicholas laid out the government’s structured plan for renewable-energy deployment.
He said APUA has already moved to allow households to install rooftop systems of up to 5 kilowatts, including inverter and battery storage, as part of an orderly transition designed to protect the grid while giving consumers access to clean energy.
He stressed that the 5kW cap was not arbitrary but based on technical assessments and the need to maintain reliability.
Nicholas said the government is also pursuing utility-scale green-energy projects to complement the controlled rollout of home systems. He referenced Antigua and Barbuda’s engagement with the International Solar Alliance and discussions involving access to development financing through the Green Climate Fund.
According to him, the goal is to establish a utility-led renewable-energy platform that can reduce fossil-fuel dependence while preserving APUA’s financial stability.
He highlighted the scale of the challenge, noting that Antigua’s electricity system requires close to $200 million in fuel each year and that meaningful relief on electricity bills can only come from long-term structural shifts in how power is generated.
Nicholas pointed to Barbuda’s experience, where fuel savings from renewable integration have already produced measurable benefits, and he said similar results would be possible across Antigua once utility-scale generation is expanded.
Nicholas framed the government’s strategy as a balance between encouraging household participation in renewable energy and ensuring the national grid remains financially and technically secure. He said the mix of controlled rooftop installations and large-scale clean-energy investments is the only realistic path to a stable and sustainable energy future.
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With respect, government can’t call for a GREEN transition, seek international climate funds, and then severely limit homeowners from installing meaningful solar. A single air conditioner can use 5 kW — so the current cap is unrealistic.
Most businesses are closed at night and add no real load to the grid, so restricting commercial solar makes even less sense. The real issue is simple: government depends heavily on electricity revenue, and giving up that income is politically difficult. This isn’t even about the ABLP specifically — any government would struggle to give up a revenue stream that supports spending and popularity.
If we want real change, the “game” has to change: limit government spending to a fixed share of GDP unless increased by a supermajority referendum. But of course, that’s unlikely to happen.
Medford is as smart as much as he is light skin, try to cut corruption instead of solar and you will find the solution.
What Mr Nicholas is saying,or should I say what he is advised to say coming from the APUA engineering team is correct, and I have said that previously, that these self generated power systems could destabilize the system power grid by inconsistent power demands, that can trip the generators off line from over frequency. But what the APUA engineering team failed to allow their intelligence to look at, it can be possible to allow these large solar power to private homes if APUA gets the wadadli power plant back on line to use as frequency stabilization, but that would mean a reduction in private generation contracts, so that Apua plant can regulate the transients. The private homes can have it, if we had a utility commission like Barbados, in other countries the consumers would have better utility service and incentives by having a utility commission. But it is true that the momentary power transients of private solar or generators coming online and offline would destabilize the generation system. I have seen systems where utilities integrate the satellite atomic time clock to time the frequency on the plants, but for power to go up and down without notice it’s a recipe for power destabilization that can cause nuisance power outages, at present the power generation team has got to monitor power consumption throughout the day and night, presently after 12 midnight people gone to sleep the frequency start to come down and in the morning frequency is raise as business start up during the business day.
If a consumer was to just switch out to full solar intermittently the power wave form on the generation instruments would be false or momentary, and can cause surges to burn customer appliances or the system trip to prevent that which will be nuisance power outages.
@Hazel Roberts
There are some valid engineering concerns raised here, but the argument is incomplete and leans on legacy grid assumptions.
Yes, large amounts of unmanaged generation switching on and off can affect grid stability on small island grids, particularly where:
• Inertia is low (diesel-heavy systems)
• There is limited real-time control
• There is no modern grid code enforcement
That part is correct.
However, several key points are missing or mischaracterized:
1. Modern grid-tied solar does not “randomly” inject power
Certified inverters (IEEE 1547-2018, UL 1741 SA) actively:
• Ride through frequency deviations
• Curtail output during over-frequency
• Provide Volt/VAR and frequency-watt response
This is not speculative — this is standard practice globally.
2. Frequency instability is a utility control issue, not a homeowner issue
If a grid cannot tolerate predictable solar variability, that indicates:
• Insufficient spinning reserve
• Poor governor tuning
• Lack of fast-responding assets (BESS, modern gensets)
Blaming customers masks underinvestment in grid modernization.
3. Solar does not “trip generators” — poor dispatch does
Over-frequency trips occur when:
• Generation is not ramped down fast enough
• There is no automated curtailment or droop response
Well-run utilities integrate solar without tripping by design.
4. Atomic clocks are irrelevant to the core problem
Time synchronization helps monitoring, not stability.
Stability comes from:
• Inertia (real or synthetic)
• Fast frequency response
• Proper interconnection rules
5. Intermittent self-generation is already managed worldwide
Barbados, Hawaii, California, Australia — all operate grids with:
• High rooftop solar penetration
• Islanded or weak grid conditions
The difference is clear grid codes, export limits, and enforcement, not prohibition.
6. Appliance damage claims are misleading
Customer equipment is protected by:
• Inverter anti-islanding
• Utility protection relays
• ANSI voltage/frequency tolerances
Frequent outages damage appliances far more than compliant solar ever will.
⸻
The real issue is governance, not physics.
• Antigua lacks a modern independent utility commission
• Grid codes are outdated or inconsistently applied
• Solar policy is being framed as a threat instead of a controllable asset
Solar adoption does not eliminate utility jobs — it shifts them toward:
• Grid operations
• Storage integration
• Advanced dispatch
• Maintenance and protection systems
@alex lewis, I couldn’t do anything else but agree with your polemics, we are all for solar power, but APUA is so politicize that it is not a functioning organization as it should, unless it gets a utility commission and board , I don’t even believe a minister should have an office at APUA, the system we have in place is supervised by the one percenters who control all government contracts procurement. What they decide for these engineers is what obtains.
I wasn’t saying a property with inverter is not protected from transients, the regular customers if APUA doesn’t have stringent measures as far as generation frequency control.
I still have a wind generator, I am going to have a lighting panel for 12 vdc battery system for lighting without expenses like inverter, I usually do that at hurricane time.
I have been in that field for about 37 years when areas like turtle bay was the onliest place with solar and inverter, I love it. When Mike Tyson’s was boxing and my satellite dish is on pay per view, I used inverter power so there is no interruptions due to power outage.
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