Commercial users of solar power already export electricity to power firm Belco, but they don’t get paid for it, an industry expert said yesterday.

Tim Madeiros — boss of Alternative Energy Systems (AES) — said he had been working for four years to thrash out a payment scheme for commercial solar power with Belco, but with no result.

In the meantime, Belco has been free to sell on the power to other customers — and it doesn’t cost them a cent.

Mr Madeiros said: “Not only is the excess energy exported by the businesses to Belco without compensation, but growth in the commercial solar energy industry overall being restricted because businesses that would consider a switch to renewable energy are reluctant to move forward until a final interconnection agreement with Belco has been established.”

Mr Madeiros added that he had been working for four years to try and thrash out an interconnection policy for commercial users with Belco — long before the first commercial solar system was installed.

But he said: “Promises made by Belco that an agreement would be in place before the first system came online did not materialise.”

The Royal Gazette reported on Monday that Gorham’s chief Rod Ferguson had asked both the Energy Commission and Belco for an explanation for the delay — but had not received a reply.

But a spokeswoman for Belco said the firm had kept members of his management up-to-date on progress. She added that solar panel installers had failed to respond to requests for comment on a draft agreement, which was submitted in May to the Energy Commission.

AES has since installed 1,592 solar panels at three businesses — home goods and building supply store Gorham’s, drinks firm Gosling’s and Lindo’s supermarket — which produce a total of 392 kilowatts.

But Mr Madeiros said: “These three businesses are closed on Sundays and public holidays, which means that for 62 days a year, they are exporting energy to Belco for free — that’s two months of electricity a year.

“Clean energy produced by the renewable solar arrays owned by these businesses is received by Belco and is then onward sold by Belco through its grid to its retail customers.”

Mr Madeiros added that Belco’s current rates are around 46c per kilowatt hour.

Gorham’s chairman Rod Ferguson, where solar power panels were installed two years ago, said he had been under the impression power generated at his firm had been wasted, not pumped into the Belco grid.

He added: “They have been having it all this time and giving us diddly.

“Maybe what Belco needs to do once this agreement is in place is to look at a retroactive agreement. It means they are not using expensive fossil fuel if they are getting our electricity free.”

Belco said last week that it had submitted a proposal in May to the Energy Commission, which comes under the Ministry for Economic Development, but had yet to receive a response.

Mr Ferguson said: “If Belco said ‘look, we haven’t heard from you and because we feel an obligation to our larger customers, we want to roll this out now to appease them’, then maybe the Energy Commission would be energised to complete its task.

“That would be a satisfactory result for us.”

But the Belco spokeswoman said: “In fact, those customers, such as Gorham’s, who have installed commercial-sized solar renewable generating systems and connected them to Belco’s grid have done so without any consultation, permission or approval from the utility.

“In every case, the affected commercial customers and the solar installers who built the systems did so in the full prior knowledge that until such time as a commercial interconnection mechanism is in place and approved by the Energy Commission, the customer could not be compensated.”

And she added: “A solar system which is not properly installed could cause ‘electrical backfeed’ into Belco’s electric system under certain circumstances, possibly endangering the safety of Belco line workers and the public.

“Similarly, arriving at the proper level of compensation ensures that the commercial customer with a solar installation is receiving fair compensation for the excess power they sell to the utility and, very importantly, is not being subsidised by all other Belco customers.”

She said: “Belco stands ready to implement the commercial solar interconnection agreement upon approval and has stated so many times. Mr Ferguson knows this and it is sad the he chooses now to misrepresent the truth.”

Government did not respond to requests for comment.