Cayman residents who legally purchased solar and battery systems from licensed local installers are now receiving communications from CUC claiming their systems are non-compliant. We are calling on OfReg and the Cayman Islands Government to immediately halt this enforcement campaign, protect existing installations, and put residents, not a monopoly utility, back in charge of their own roofs.

Cayman's renewable energy transition is being strangled by the company that profits from stopping it. We are asking the Government and OfReg to step in — now.

The contradiction was laid bare on a single day this month. On 19 May 2026, Caribbean Utilities Company issued a public statement promoting renewable energy and encouraging Cayman residents to "go green" to lower their bills. Four hours later, on the same day, CUC sent every solar installation company in Cayman a letter restricting what their customers are permitted to do with their own solar and battery systems. The very next day, the Government's one-year progress update again highlighted solar as a key strategy for reducing the cost of living for Cayman families.

These messages cannot both be true. And the evidence on the ground tells us which one is real.

Cayman's renewable energy programmes are not working — by design. As of 12 May 2026, with nearly half the year gone, only 16 Alternative Energy permit applications had been filed across the entire country. The CORE programme excludes batteries. The DER programme, the only sanctioned pathway for self-consumption with storage, has been capped at 3 MW since 2018. Both programmes route every decision through CUC — the for-profit, publicly-traded monopoly that loses money on every kilowatt-hour a household generates for itself.

The equipment in question is not unsafe and not experimental. The solar and battery systems being installed by Cayman's licensed solar companies are NEC-compliant, UL-rated, and have been in safe and reliable operation around the world for more than twelve years. "Safety" is not the issue. Control is the issue.

CUC is now reaching beyond its own grid. A Cayman homeowner whose stand-alone solar and battery system has been fully approved by the Building Control Unit — a system with no interconnection to CUC's grid at all — has been told that their installation also requires CUC approval. There is no technical, legal, or regulatory basis for a utility to assert jurisdiction over equipment that is not connected to it. This raises an equally troubling question: how is CUC obtaining customer information for systems that do not involve them in any way?

Meanwhile, CUC continues to charge a "renewable energy fee" on every meter in the Cayman Islands — including the meters of customers who are actively investing their own money to reduce dependence on CUC.

This is not a regulatory accident. It is a monopoly defending its market. And the cost is being paid by Cayman families who are trying to lower their power bills, by Cayman businesses trying to remain competitive, by the national renewable energy targets we have publicly committed to, and by the local solar industry. At least one Cayman solar company — possibly two — will likely be forced to close if the current trajectory continues. The companies that have invested in training Caymanian tradespeople, importing modern equipment, and building local expertise are being eliminated by the same utility that publicly claims to support the transition.

We are calling on the Cayman Islands Government and OfReg to act, immediately and on the public record.

Specifically, we demand:

1. An immediate moratorium on any enforcement action, threat of disconnection, fine, or other punitive measure by CUC against homeowners with existing solar and/or battery installations, pending an independent regulatory review by OfReg.
2. Grandfathering of all existing residential solar and battery installations that were installed by licensed Cayman contractors and that comply with applicable electrical, fire, and building codes — without retroactive penalty, fee, or forced removal.
   
   
3. A clear, published, plain-language homeowner's bill of rights for distributed energy in the Cayman Islands, setting out exactly what residents are permitted to install on their own property and on what terms.
   
   
4. Transfer of authority over residential solar and battery interconnection standards from CUC to OfReg or a qualified independent technical body. CUC should not write the rules it benefits from enforcing.
   
   
5. Removal of the artificial cap on the DER programme and replacement with a straightforward, time-bound, technically-grounded approval process — so that homeowners are not forced into the grey zone that CUC is now exploiting.
   
   
6. An OfReg investigation into the communications CUC has sent to homeowners and installers regarding battery systems, including whether those communications misrepresent the legal status of equipment that was installed in good faith and to code.

This petition is not anti-CUC. CUC has a legitimate, important role in operating Cayman's grid. But that role does not extend to threatening private homeowners who chose to invest in their own clean energy future on their own property.

If you are a Cayman resident, an installer, a business owner, a relative of a homeowner who has been contacted by CUC, or simply someone who believes monopolies should not be allowed to police the rooftops of the people they sell to — please sign and share this petition.

Our roofs. Our investments. Our right to power our own homes.