An IRRP is a plan for how a country can supply its need for electricity for the foreseeable future. IRRPs are integrated because they consider many different resources to satisfy the need for electric power. The CCREEE is partnering with CARICOM Member States to review and recommend the available resources for development, to include conventional power plants (diesel engines, gas turbines etc.) and renewable energy sources, like solar farms, wind farms, hydropower and geothermal power plants. The CCREEE will also deploy energy efficiency programmes for the benefit of Member States, in support of the IRRP process. The more energy we save, the less we need to produce to meet our needs.
The structure our IRRP outlines must be a resilient one. This means that the entire power system, including power plants, power lines and substations must be able to resist or rapidly recover from natural hazards such as hurricanes, floods and heatwaves, making the IRRP a key component of our Climate Resilience Programme. With this approach, the CCREEE has partnered with Caribbean Institute of Metrology Hydrology (CIMH) to develop vulnerability assessments for Member States in establishing a “least regret” path.
The IRRP planning approach iterates on the traditional integrated resource planning process that electricity sector utilities regularly undergo by integrating analyses of climate vulnerability. The CCREEE, during this process, will help to raise the human and institutional capacity for systems modelling and planning in governments and utilities, which will enable them to reduce the impact of climate events on electricity systems at the national level. The IRRP process will also output a pipeline of necessary investments, the realisation of which would be supported by CCREEE’s Project Preparation Facility (PPF). The human capacity development that must undergird all resilience building will be supported by the CARICOM Energy Knowledge Hub (CEKH).
At the 82nd Special Meeting of Council for Trade and Economic Development, CARICOM endorsed the methodology, principles and practices of integrated resource and resilience planning as the preferred mechanism for electricity sector planning in Member States, and urged Member States to develop Integrated Resource and Resilience Plans (IRRPs) by 2023.
To learn more or access country support for the development of an Integrated Resource and Resilience Plan (IRRP), please write to: resilience@ccreee.org.
Welcome to the CARICOM Energy Knowledge Hub, an information and knowledge management framework developed to ensure that appropriate, reliable and
high-quality information is available and accessible within the region.
The Caribbean region is endowed with a wide variety of renewable resources from where clean energy can be harnessed but are currently underexploited. Although investment in sustainable energy infrastructure and technologies is growing in the region, the stunted growth will not ensure that the regional and national targets and goals are achieved.