When a buyer asks an Albany seller for the last twelve months of Bahamas Power and Light bills, how much of 2027 can those bills predict? They record accurately what the house cost to run this year, and they come from a year that won't repeat in the same way. The fuel was bought forward at a fixed price, the tariff schedule has been in place since mid-2024, and the regulator has said the tier structure tilted costs away from households. In the first half of 2027, all three of those conditions are set to change.
That makes the bill history less useful than it looks. To see why, start with how a large home's bill is built.
Nearly Every Unit a Large Home Uses Is Billed at the Top Rate
BPL's published residential tariff, effective July 1, 2024, charges no base rate on the first 200 kWh each month, 11.95 cents per kWh from 201 to 800, and 14.95 cents for every unit after that. A separate fuel charge sits on top and is passed through monthly. BPL's method sets the first 800 kWh at 2.5 cents below its calculated average fuel cost and everything above 800 kWh at 1.5 cents above it. As of August 2026, The Tribune reported those charges at 17.4 cents and 21.4 cents per kWh.
The structure is progressive, so it barely registers for a small condo and does most of the work on a large house. A family home with central air, a pool pump and a guest wing passes 800 kWh early in the month. After that, each additional unit costs 14.95 cents of base charge plus 21.4 cents of fuel. That is 36.35 cents before tax, and BPL adds 10% VAT to residential bills over $400.
Here is how those published rates apply to a month of 3,000 kWh:
| Component | Units | Rate | Charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base, first block | 200 kWh | 0.00¢ | $0.00 |
| Base, second block | 600 kWh | 11.95¢ | $71.70 |
| Base, above 800 kWh | 2,200 kWh | 14.95¢ | $328.90 |
| Fuel, first 800 kWh | 800 kWh | 17.4¢ | $139.20 |
| Fuel, above 800 kWh | 2,200 kWh | 21.4¢ | $470.80 |
| Total before VAT | $1,010.60 |
About $610 of that month, roughly 60%, is fuel. Across the whole country the share is higher still. The Inter-American Development Bank, quoted by The Tribune, put fuel at approximately 74 percent of total consumer electricity bills in The Bahamas. For a large Albany home, then, the fuel line is the bill, and the 2026 fuel line was the product of a single contract.
The 2026 Fuel Price Was Bought in December 2025
BPL's fuel charge history shows how much the line moved before the hedge. In January 2025 it was 16.25 and 20.25 cents. It rose to 18.4 and 22.4 cents by June 2025, then settled at 17.4 and 21.4 cents in July 2025 and held there through February 2026.
The rate held through 2026 because of the hedge. The Tribune reported in August that in December 2025 BPL locked in roughly 2.5 million barrels of fuel oil at $65 per barrel, covering calendar year 2026. The IDB noted that Brent crude then averaged $100 per barrel for three months and stayed well above $70 for most of the first half of the year. The bank forecast $43 million in savings for BPL's customers over the year. Prime Minister Philip Davis described the hedge as protecting customers through December 2026.
The same Tribune report quoted the IDB's view of what follows. "The BPL fuel hedge expires in December 2026," the bank said. "If Brent crude oil prices remain above $65, the full cost adjustment will hit in 2027 unless the hedge is renewed and widened."
So a 2026 bill shows a house running on $65 oil. In the table above, 2,200 of the 3,000 units are billed at the higher fuel tier. Those are the units most exposed to whatever fuel arrangement BPL has in place after December.
A Regulator Has Already Said Who Was Carrying the Cost
Fuel is the first moving part. The second is the tier structure.
In July 2026 the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority published its review of BPL's fuel tariff glide path, which ran from October 2022 to March 2024. It found that the charges billed to customers never fully covered BPL's actual fuel costs, leaving an under-recovered balance of about $37.6 million. It also found that the tiered fuel structure "shifted a greater share of fuel costs onto commercial customers, resulting in commercial customers effectively subsidising residential customers."
URCA said those findings will inform BPL's first statutory tariff review under the Electricity Act, 2024, with new tariffs scheduled to take effect in 2027. Until then, it plans to draft new fuel charge regulations covering how fuel costs are calculated, recovered and passed through. In September, URCA set the timetable. Tariff applications are due by December 1, 2026, and final decisions are anticipated in April 2027.
This piece of the timeline is the one that affects transactions. Tariff applications will be filed less than two weeks after this post publishes. An Albany purchase that closes this winter will close while the 2027 residential tiers are still being decided, and the tariff in force today is the July 2024 schedule.
New Generation Could Pull the Other Way
The third moving part is supply. The changes here are intended to lower fuel costs, and they are scheduled for the same months.
At the Clifton Pier LNG terminal groundbreaking in July 2026, The Tribune reported that phase one was expected to supply LNG to 90 MW of generation by the first quarter of 2027. Phase two was set to reach Blue Hills in the fourth quarter of 2027, followed by a Blue Hills combined-cycle plant of more than 170 MW of baseload. FOCOL, Shell North America and BPL are the partners, and combined investment exceeds $500 million.
The Coral Harbour solar farm by Eco Energy Bahamas is the nearest project to Albany. The Office of the Prime Minister described it as a 20 MW solar facility with a 5 MWh battery. In October 2025, BPL put completion at 16 to 18 months from the start of construction and said New Providence consumers could benefit as early as the first quarter of 2027. On October 21, 2026, BPL executive chair Christina Alston said the utility had changed parts of its grid code and was studying how utility-scale solar on New Providence responds to grid disturbances.
The hedge ends in December, the tariff decision is expected in April, and the first LNG and Coral Harbour solar timelines both point to the first quarter of 2027. These changes don't all push bills in the same direction. That is why a 2026 bill gives a good picture of how a house uses power and a poor picture of what that power will cost.
What This Does to the Rooftop Solar Math
The fuel-charge mechanism also explains how solar is valued under BPL's program. Under the Small-Scale Renewable Generation program, BPL says it credits energy sent to the grid at the prevailing fuel charge rate, monthly. A kilowatt-hour that a home makes and uses itself replaces a unit billed at base plus fuel, which is 36.35 cents at the top tier today. A kilowatt-hour sent to the grid earns only the fuel component. Solar that the house consumes, especially in the afternoon when air conditioning runs hardest, is worth considerably more per unit than solar it exports.
Rooftop solar in these neighborhoods has a history. In 2020, The Tribune reported the electrical workers' union president describing Lyford Cay and Albany as BPL "base customers" while noting solar adoption in both communities. BPL's posted interconnection requirements set the New Providence residential limit at 5 kW plus average customer demand, with a maximum of 100 kW. The sequence starts with an application to BPL, filed with a $50 non-refundable fee, and BPL approval comes before any equipment is bought or connected. Ministry of Works electrical and building permits follow, then inspections and an executed interconnection agreement. For a buyer, the practical question about an existing array is whether that paperwork exists and is in the seller's name.
This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm the details of any interconnection, tariff or ownership-cost question with BPL and with your own attorney or advisor.
Reliability Sits Beside Price
A full picture of running costs also covers what the grid did this year. On August 18, The Tribune reported that the Prime Minister attributed the July 30 island-wide blackout to an underground cable fault and a transformer failure at Blue Hills, not to a shortage of generation. He said 40 MW of rental generation would begin phasing out in January, but only as tested permanent capacity becomes available. Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis told The Tribune that June 2026 had about 18 days above 90°F, compared with about four in an ordinary June. On September 22, according to The Tribune, a lightning strike damaged a 25-MVA transformer serving Blue Hills rental generation, and BPL said it restored affected areas by 9 a.m.
A June with that many hot days also shows up in this year's bills. When reading a seller's history, the summer months tell you how the house handles peak heat, and the tariff lines tell you what 2026 prices were. Those are separate pieces of information.
Before making an offer, a buyer can gather the following:
- Twelve months of BPL bills with the kWh shown, not just the dollar totals, so usage can be repriced under whatever tariff is approved in 2027.
- The share of monthly usage above 800 kWh, since those units carry both the higher base rate and the higher fuel tier.
- For a home with solar, the SSRG approval certificate and the signed interconnection agreement.
- Information on any backup generation and its service records, given this year's grid events.
FAQ
Does Albany have its own power utility? Albany is served by BPL, the government-owned national utility for New Providence, and some homes add their own solar under BPL's interconnection program.
Where is the current fuel charge published? BPL posts it on its fuel charge update page.
When will the 2027 tariff be known? URCA anticipates publishing final decisions in April 2027 on applications due December 1, 2026.
If you are weighing an Albany home this winter, Chancellors KW Bahamas can help you put a seller's utility history next to BPL's published tariffs and URCA's 2027 timetable. That way your estimate of what the house costs to run is built on usage figures and not just last year's totals. Schedule Your Concierge Consultation.
