Prime Minister Luc Mercelina (General Affairs) during Monday’s Question Hour on long term solutions for utilities provider GEBE and relief measures for residents and businesses indicated a commitment (see related stories) to address the biggest complaint, namely the dreaded fuel clause. He spoke of a thorough analysis with relevant stakeholders.
Many find local water and electricity bills not only high but occasionally volatile, where small variations in usage spark huge disparities. The fuel clause is widely seen as chief culprit.
A thorough study will also be needed because it regards a government-owned company and corporate governance rules must be adhered to. Any decision should be well-founded and responsible in both a financial and operational sense.
Plans include exempting related fuel imports from turnover tax next quarter, but the national budget must stay balanced too. The same thing goes for private sector entities involved having to keep an eye on their bottom line.
Meanwhile, any concerns about the still-unpublished 2025 budget affecting the purchase of new large generators to structurally resolve the lack of local capacity that led to a lengthy load-shedding crisis on the Dutch side last year were removed. The prime minister assured that these investments with a loan from the Netherlands could still be placed in the 2024 capital budget and therefore are not on hold.
Renewable sources were mentioned, with government looking into making land available for wind or solar energy projects while promoting such with its buyback programme. Just as an example, Curaçao’s Aqualectra elsewhere in this edition confirms its intent to be 70% “green” by 2027.
Granted, St. Maarten and GEBE had other priorities like recovering from devastating September 2017 Hurricane Irma and more recently an acute capacity shortage. However, the time has come for concrete actions in this regard.
There will always be challenges. The ABC islands that have windmill parks can be impacted by windless conditions especially when these coincide with the hottest period of the year, leading to respectively less production and more demand.
For solar farms such as those in St. Eustatius and Saba, the main thing is getting through the night when there is no sunlight. Although a reliable supply is obviously paramount especially for a tourism destination, studies have shown that St. Maarten’s peak demand is during the same hours when solar panels generate the most power.
That seems like a good starting point.
