Amid growing public frustration over sharply rising electricity costs, a new commentary is pushing for radical transparency and regulatory reform for St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ state-owned national electricity provider, VINLEC. As a publicly owned entity accountable to the people of the island nation, VINLEC’s pricing structure and financial practices have come under renewed scrutiny following a wave of public feedback after last week’s initial analysis of the company’s controversial shift from a fuel surcharge to a standing charge.
Following the publication of last week’s analysis of VINLEC’s billing changes, hundreds of local residents reached out to commentators to share their alarm at the rapid acceleration of household energy costs. One resident reported their monthly bill jumping from under EC$400 to nearly EC$600 in just two months – a change that adds up to an extra EC$2,400 annually for already cash-strapped households. In an economy where household budgets are already stretched thin, this increase forces families to choose between paying for power, essential groceries, school supplies, and housing, placing an disproportionate burden on low-income communities.
Many residents have raised questions about the lack of public clarity around VINLEC’s profit levels, with most reporting they have no access to clear financial data about the company’s operations. While VINLEC does publish audited financial statements on its website under the “About VINLEC” tab, the company does not disseminate these documents through mainstream local print or digital media, a practice that falls short of the transparency expected of a publicly owned asset. An examination of VINLEC’s most recent 2024 audited accounts shows the company reported total revenue of EC$175.2 million, with a net profit of EC$13.2 million – nearly double the EC$6.65 million profit it recorded in 2023. By the end of 2024, the company had accumulated EC$125.9 million in retained earnings, held EC$21 million in cash reserves, and held roughly EC$48 million in investments including government bonds and treasury bills.
It is standard for operating companies to generate profit to fund capital upgrades and infrastructure replacement, and VINLEC notes it needs these reserves to replace aging generation engines, power poles, transmission lines, meters, and switchgear – including the equipment that failed at Lowmans Bay in 2024, triggering two island-wide blackouts. In 2024 alone, the company invested EC$20.2 million in new plant and equipment. Notably, VINLEC has not paid any dividends to the national government in either 2023 or 2024, meaning all profits have been retained within the company. But as Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley argued at a recent CARICOM private sector meeting, questioning why private giant Massy could record BDS$49 million in profit while working-class Barbadians struggled to afford food, the standard for publicly owned assets must be higher. Unlike Massy, which is answerable to private shareholders, VINLEC has only one stakeholder: the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which means it is ultimately owned by the people of the country.
VINLEC has long maintained it makes no profit from the fuel surcharge, and its accounts confirm that collected surcharge amounts have not exactly matched actual fuel costs over the past three years. In 2022, the company collected roughly EC$510,000 less in surcharges than it paid for fuel. In 2023 and 2024 combined, it collected EC$1.7 million more than its actual fuel costs. Netting out the three-year period, consumers paid roughly EC$1.2 million more in fuel surcharges than VINLEC’s actual fuel expenses. While this gap is relatively small compared to the company’s annual fuel bill of around EC$90 million – and can be partially explained by the timing mismatch between when fuel is purchased and when the surcharge is applied to customer bills – the core issue remains: there is no mechanism to refund over-collected funds to consumers, and no independent body audits the surcharge calculations outside of VINLEC’s annual financial audit. Any overage simply becomes part of the company’s profit, while any shortfall is absorbed by the business.
The root of the problem lies in outdated regulatory framework laid out in the 1973 Electricity Supply Act, which grants VINLEC an exclusive 60-year license to generate and sell electricity that runs until 2033. Electricity rates are negotiated directly between VINLEC and the relevant government minister, with no independent regulatory body to oversee pricing, resolve consumer complaints, or enforce fair standards. Neighboring Caribbean nations including Saint Lucia (2016), Grenada (2016), Barbados, and Jamaica have all established independent utilities regulators, but St. Vincent and the Grenadines has failed to follow suit.
This regulatory gap also impacts the expansion of rooftop solar, which many consumers see as a path to lower energy bills. VINLEC CEO Dr. Vaughn Lewis claimed in August 2025 that net metering – which credits customers for excess solar power sent back to the grid – cost the company EC$2.7 million last year, and that these costs are passed on to all consumers via higher base rates. While the commentary does not accuse VINLEC of acting in bad faith, it notes that as a business that earns revenue per unit of electricity sold, rooftop solar directly cuts into VINLEC’s bottom line, making the company inherently biased against expanding solar access. Rules for consumer-owned rooftop solar cannot be left to VINLEC alone, the commentary argues, introducing competition is the only way to drive fair pricing and innovation in the sector.
Governance gaps are also evident in the structure of the current government cabinet. Trinidad and Tobago maintains a dedicated Ministry of Public Utilities to oversee energy issues and respond to consumer complaints, but in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, energy responsibility is folded into the broad Ministry of Health, Wellness, Environmental Health and Energy. While Energy Minister Daniel Cummings holds one of the heaviest portfolios in government, the placement of energy as the last responsibility in his department’s title sends a clear signal that it is not a top policy priority – despite consumers paying close to 80 cents per unit in fuel surcharges alone.
Past government policy pledges on renewable energy have also failed to materialize. The 2010 National Energy Action Plan released by the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) set a target of sourcing 30% of the nation’s electricity from renewables by 2015, and 60% by 2020. As of 2026, VINLEC’s own data puts renewable penetration at just 16-17%. A high-profile geothermal energy project, first promised to deliver 10 megawatts of power by the end of 2017 in a 2014 parliamentary address, has stalled after US$32.5 million was spent by 2019, when exploratory wells failed to deliver viable resources. VINLEC’s 2024 accounts still list a EC$2 million bridging loan advanced by the company to the geothermal project that remains owed by the government.
In July 2025, ULP leaders argued that asking VINLEC to absorb a portion of the fuel surcharge to lower consumer bills was financially unsustainable and would threaten infrastructure maintenance. Yet the one-time subsidy applied to July consumer bills totaled just EC$734,959 – equal to roughly one-eighteenth of VINLEC’s 2024 total profit. In September 2025, ULP leaders publicly questioned whether statutory bodies like VINLEC are being pressured to purchase government bonds to help cover public sector salary costs. This critique rings hollow, the commentary notes, because VINLEC’s 2024 accounts show that outstanding debt the ULP government owed to VINLEC was settled via a EC$25 million government bond issued in 2024 with a 7.5% interest rate.
The opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) implemented temporary diesel tax relief and a VINLEC subsidy to cap fuel surcharge increases when it took office in May 2025, but since that time, the prime minister has only publicly appealed to VINLEC for leniency on disconnections for non-payment, rather than using the government’s power as VINLEC’s owner to enforce policy change. Since the government appoints VINLEC’s board of directors, policy change requires more than public appeals. Speaking at a September 20 town hall, the prime minister acknowledged that state-owned enterprises owe the public greater accountability – a stance the commentary fully endorses, arguing that accountability must start with the electricity prices consumers pay every month.
The commentary stresses that it does not criticize frontline VINLEC workers, and that no one is asking the company to operate at a loss. Instead, consumers are demanding clear, plain-language explanations of where their energy payments go, and a concrete, actionable plan to bring down rising electricity bills.
To address these failures, the commentary puts forward four core policy recommendations: First, the government should require VINLEC to publish its full audited annual accounts in mainstream local media, not just on its website, and tables a full annual report in Parliament within six months of the end of each fiscal year to make the information easily accessible to all members of the public. Second, VINLEC should be required to publish full monthly calculations of the fuel surcharge, including total fuel purchased, the price paid per unit, total units sold, and the net amount of any over- or under-collection, with all over-collected funds refunded to consumers in subsequent billing – a practice VINLEC already followed for years in local newspaper publication. Third, the government should introduce legislation to establish an independent utilities regulator well before VINLEC’s exclusive license expires in 2033, to create an independent body to audit tariffs, review pricing, and hear consumer complaints outside of VINLEC and the relevant government minister. Fourth, the government must publicly outline its plan to replace lost renewable generation capacity, including the solar plant on Union Island that was written off after Hurricane Beryl and the Cumberland 3 hydropower facility that was shut down in 2025, to reverse the current trend of falling renewable penetration.
As the commentary concludes, when any official claims that VINLEC’s profits are none of the public’s business, consumers should remember that the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are the actual owners of the company. Even when global oil prices fall and fuel surcharges drop, consumers should remain engaged and demand action to update the 1973 electricity law and create independent oversight of fuel surcharge calculations. Right now, no independent actor reviews surcharge numbers before they appear on consumer bills – and that is a problem that cannot wait for reform.
