A customer survey is to help to shape the future of energy policy in Bermuda.

Belco is surveying residents on domestic usage and their openness to green technology, to determine the company's strategy on renewable energy.

"In order to accurately plan for the future, we need to understand people's priorities, preferences and intentions, to try to project what customers are likely to do, and what is likely to be supported by Government policy and processes," said Belco executive vice president Andrew Parsons.

The questions focus on what kind of appliances people have in their homes and occupancy at certain times of the day. It asks whether they would buy an electric scooter or car, and how much they would pay for green energy.

Mr. Parsons said: "We are pursuing what we refer to as The New Energy Equation, which promotes integrating renewable energy sources and other technologies and programmes into the overall energy plan.

"As we stated over a year ago, we believe that Bermuda should be targeting to receive 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020."

Last year, five companies gave presentations to the public on large-scale renewable energy installations for the Island.

These included solar photovoltaic panels by RES Americas, wind turbines by IPC, wave energy by Triton/REH, and biomass energy by Intrinergy and Plasco Energy.

However, due to the competition from other jurisdictions for companies' attention, Mr. Parsons said: "Unfortunately, there has not been much traction on those proposals and no declaration of where large renewable energy installations, those or others, could be placed.

"With the advent of the Obama administration's new energy initiatives, several of those players may not have the same interest they did one-and-a-half years ago, as there's a sizeable number of funds being made available.

"We will be challenged to find partners but I do believe there are interested parties which remain in touch with us and Government, so we will continue to develop these relationships."

Mr. Parsons said one of the main issues was finding suitable locations on such a small island as Bermuda.

"Government is in sync with us with the need for renewables but we are also an island with limited space, and so to place large-scale photovoltaic panels, it's trying to source those sites," he said.

"At the moment it is impossible to plan to integrate large-scale renewable energy into our mix within the timelines by which we will need a new plant."

He said plans for a new diesel power station would therefore be going ahead at the company's central Pembroke plant.

"Even with 20 percent renewable energy, we would still need to get 80 percent of our energy from traditional, fossil fuel plant," said Mr. Parsons.

"Given our demand projections, as well as the need to retire several engines in our older power plant, we need to be finalising plans to build a new diesel power station by the end of this year, to ensure we can meet all requirements in 2014.

"By 2013 we have to retire plant, and will have no alternative if we want to continue to supply reliable secure electricity to Bermuda. Large-scale renewables will not be available by 2013 so Belco has no alternative at this point but to have a new development on the campus here."

He said the new power station was the first phase of Belco's 20-year Central Plant Plan, submitted to Planning in 2007.

In the meantime however, Belco will continue to encourage customers to adopt small-scale renewables through its subsidiary, PureNERGY.

"We encourage our customers to find alternative sources of energy to help them reduce their overall reliance on Belco and fossil fuels," said Mr. Parsons.

But he admitted costs of installation meant customers were unlikely to notice an immediate change.

"Renewables will not likely see a reduction in rates for the customer," said Mr. Parsons.

Customers can access the survey at: www.belco.bm or fill out paper copies at Belco's Serpentine Road headquarters or at the Bermuda Gas Showroom in Church Street.

The survey runs until May 26 and participants will be entered into a draw to win a $250 electricity credit.