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Utilities Regulatory Commission

Regulating today for a resilient future.

Sector

Renewable Energy

URC Regulatory Role in Renewable Energy

URC’s responsibilities include overseeing licensing and authorisation, regulating tariffs, and ensuring fair competition within the electricity sector, all of which are crucial for fostering a conducive environment for renewable energy development.

Why Renewable Energy Matters

Electricity generation through fossil fuels contributes to the production of greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable sources of energy offer unique opportunities with innovative technologies to speed up the process. This will help in diversifying our energy supply, improve energy access, create job opportunities, enhance our energy security and as a whole improve our quality of living.

Renewable technologies are getting more and more innovative every day, having the advantage to easily deploy them anywhere needed.

Aerial view of the Seychelles coastline

Seychelles Energy Context

Seychelles, as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), relies heavily on imported fossil fuel to produce electricity and as fuel for transportation. During recent years, due to rapid economic growth linked to foreign direct investment and an increase in tourism activities, domestic energy demand has grown rapidly. Our consumption in electricity alone reflects this general trend in the increase of energy demand and use.

Diagram of the Seychelles electricity sector: generation by the PUC power station, PUC wind farm and auto-producers, feeding transmission, sub-stations and distribution to commercial, industrial and residential consumers.
Structure of the electricity sector — generation, transmission and distribution through to consumers.
4.9%Annual Average Growth RateElectricity consumption growth rate in Seychelles during 2010–2019
400 GWhNational Electricity ConsumptionTotal electricity consumption in Seychelles in 2019, sold by PUC to customers
3.9%Petroleum Fuel Growth RateAnnual average increase in petroleum fuel consumption over the same 10-year period

Reducing Fuel Import Dependency

These figures highlight our dependence on imported fossil fuel and the need for us to diversify and improve energy security, thereby significantly reducing our fuel import burden based on the fluctuating fuel costs. Transitioning to renewable energy is not just an environmental imperative — it is an economic necessity for Seychelles.