Basseterre, St. Kitts (MoPIEUDT NEWS) – The Energy Unit in the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Energy, Utilities and Domestic Transport, and the St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) are undertaking immense work to upgrade the electricity grid to accommodate the input of electricity generated by the solar rooftop panels of ordinary citizens.
The process is an important and dynamic one. It requires the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, sensitization campaigns about its utility and necessity, consultations with experts, and the institution of regulations to govern the intricacies of the process in general, and also the tariff system under which private citizens will be paid for the electricity they generate.
Pearl Williams, SKELEC’s Finance and Administration Manager, recently stated that the company had created the Energy Transition Unit to accommodate the transition to renewable energy. At the time, Williams was speaking at the June 5 press conference of the Minister of Energy and Utilities inter alia, Hon. Konris Maynard.
“We have introduced a new section within the company […] called the Energy Transition Unit and we have put one of our most senior managers to head up this unit in the person of Mr. Jonathan Kelly […] because we know the importance of moving our energy base from mainly fossil fuel to renewable energy.”
– Pearl Williams, Acting General Manager | SKELEC
The move comes as SKELEC targets a mix of energy resources that should see an uptick in renewable energy sources supplying electricity to the grid. This extends an initial target of the SKN-100 project to implement renewable energy infrastructure on all government-owned buildings by 2030; it places the capability of electricity generation in the hands of ordinary citizens with incentives that the entities involved hope adequate to achieve the end they seek.
That aside, navigating international obligations to reduce carbon emissions, battling reliance on ageing infrastructure, and identifying how best to implement practices that underpin sustainability while also providing economic benefit for residents is not a simple task. In fact, it is a collection of interwoven activities that allow for one activity to exercise variable degrees of influence on other related activities at any given time.
The Role of Key Stakeholders
An important thread in the energy fabric now being created is the Energy Unit itself. It often operates in the background, developing policies, drafting regulations and providing guidance and a degree of oversight to energy projects nationally. SKELEC’s transition to renewable energy is an important step in the overall process of the country’s transition. Accordingly, the analogy of developer (the Energy Unit) and implementer (SKELEC) operates to simplify the interplay between the two entities. Even so, there are not always absolute lines of separation in the evolving process that requires both innovation and adaptability of the entities. Their relationship is one of cooperation.
A Lacuna in Technical Standards
At the June 5 press conference, Dr. Bertill Browne, Director of the Energy Unit, highlighted a lacuna that should be filled by new regulations to govern the installation of renewable energy systems by ordinary citizens. It was a problem highlighted by foreign investors whose modus operandi dictated their asking for technical standards that our country does not have. Dr. Browne said:
“When investors come here, and they want to [install] renewable energy infrastructure, like a large solar farm, they want the guidelines and technical standards, and we don’t have that.”
– Dr. Bertill Browne, Director of the Energy Unit
The Benefit of Consultation
The gap in technical standards and the absence of guidelines are among multiple matters now being addressed by an EU-funded consultation with Greening the Islands Foundation.
“Greening the Islands Foundation supports the sustainability and self-sufficiency of islands worldwide by promoting innovative solutions and nexus-smart projects, strengthening multistakeholder cooperation, and empowering a unique platform to share knowledge, disseminate good practices, and raise awareness about islands’ challenges and opportunities.”
– Excerpt from About – Greening the Islands Foundation
The Big Picture
Like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle combine to produce a beautiful picture after painstaking effort, so too should the variables in the country’s energy formula combine to produce a cleaner, greener and more reliable energy network, symbolic of the diligence required not only to create it, but also to sustain it.
Learn more about the Energy Unit at energyunit.gov.kn and mopieudt.gov.kn. Follow
