CUC earnings down but sales up

Despite higher sales revenues for the first quarter of this year, CUC’s net earnings were $5.2 million, a $0.3 million decrease from net earnings of $5.5 million for the same period last year. CUC said the decrease was down to higher finance charges, depreciation and general and administration costs that were partially offset by higher other income.

Electricity sales revenues increased by $2.5 million for Q1 2023, totalling $24.6 million, versus Q1 2022 sales of $22.1 million. This increase was mainly driven by 6% kWh sales growth, which they attributed to the 3% customer growth and recovery in hotels and restaurants as tourism rebounded.

After the adjustment for dividends on the preference shares of the Company, earnings on Class A shares for Q1 2023 were $5.1 million, or $0.14 per Class A ordinary share, as compared to $5.4 million, or $0.14 Class A ordinary share for Q1 2022.

CUC President and CEO, Richard Hew, said consumption of electricity by large commercial entities and the overall economic growth on Grand Cayman were big contributors to their success in the first quarter of 2023.

Alternative energy boost

Cayman’s electricity provider said Grand Cayman had continued to benefit from its capital investments that had been made and would continue to be made over the next five years. Its Capital Investment Plan for 2023-2027 includes an investment amount of $403.4 million and will include a $60 million investment in alternative energy and resiliency projects.

CUC said a study was undertaken to analyse the impact of additional renewable energy on fuel efficiency of the current existing generating units of CUC. Based on findings, an additional 3MW capacity was released and allocated to the Consumer Owned Renewable Energy (CORE) and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) programmes. The study indicated additional renewable energy was within appropriate limitations and this would cause no significant impact to fuel efficiency.

They will also be putting in place upgrades that will substantially prepare generators to be converted to run on liquid natural gas or diesel while also improving their fuel efficiency, supporting Cayman’s National Energy Policy by embracing energy efficiency, reducing emissions and diversifying the generation portfolio with the capability to generate energy from gas or diesel from the Engine Room 5 (ER5). This project is slated to begin in 2023, they advised.

With increased capacity approved for the CORE and DER programmes, there is now a total of 18 MW of capacity for customer interconnection, this capacity is complemented by the 5 MW solar farm in Bodden Town. It is expected that additional renewable energy allocation will occur prior to the commercial operation date of the 20 MW Battery Energy Storage System.