The Central Committee of Parliament is set to meet today, Friday, at 11:00am with an “update on all matters related to GEBE” as sole agenda point. Legislators will be receiving further information on recent developments concerning the country’s ongoing electricity crisis, apart from what Prime Minister Luc Mercelina already announced in Wednesday’s press briefing.
He mentioned, among other things, that the first batch of 20 lease-to-own 20-foot generator containers is underway, adding to the seven containerised ones rented earlier and providing about 10 megawatts (MW). There are also talks on a Dutch loan to buy three big 9-10MW machines, while the prime minister even wants to see whether the current rental units can also be offered on a lease-purchase deal to serve as backup.
All this is perfectly reasonable considering the socioeconomic impact caused by months of frequent and lengthy outages. Emergency situations of such a magnitude usually require immediate and decisive action.
However, a transition to more sustainable energy production must not be overlooked even as the most pressing lack of capacity is tackled. After all, funding from the Netherlands and European Union was made available for this purpose and that opportunity should be seized on, while a recent scientific report said solar power has potential for St. Maarten.
In any case, these two things are not mutually exclusive.
