PART I: The Foundation
By Dr. Natasha J. Gittens, Ph.D., CHE, CHT
When I think of NV GEBE, I immediately associate the name with St. Maarten’s Dutch side power and energy. However, I realised something very quickly: In a genuine effort to find out how others felt about NV GEBE, I had to go into the community and ask one simple question: “When you think of NV GEBE, what comes to your mind?”
So I conducted a random sampling of diverse members of the community. The interviewees stated the following:
“When I think of NV GEBE, I view them as a professional company, but they need to improve on their overcharging customers for their bills. I do think that they do a good job of sending their invoices timely.” –Alexandre Yardley
“NV GEBE is a primitive company and not up to date from a technology perspective. The service is poor and it is time to give proper service. They are a monopoly and have no competition so their attitude towards the public is terrible.” –Franklin Arrindell
“When I hear the words NV GEBE, I think instability with lack of innovative thinking toward sustainable Eco Climate Change. We can never find the Green footprint in the mud!” –Denicio Wyatte
“When you say NV GEBE to me, I think of an organisation that can do so much more if they team up with our Waste Management Company and invest in Green Energy. Every time the dump is on fire, I see it as money burning. It’s time to invest in 21st century technology.” –Joel Mongen
“When I think of NV GEBE, I usually get annoyed. For a company that has been in business for such a long time, I find it frustrating that we still have power outages. One thing I will say, they did a great job during Hurricane Irma, but it is too bad they did not keep up with it.” –Anna Thomas
As you can see, consumers have varied interpretations of NV GEBE and I am committed to providing them with concrete responses throughout this four-part series from the leaders of NV GEBE’s managing board: Chief Executive Officer Kenrick Chittick, Chief Financial Officer Iris Arrindell, and Chief Operating Officer Veronica Jansen-Webster.
The purpose of this four-part “NV GEBE Fostering Community Sustainability” series is to provide the St. Maarten community with an opportunity to read and understand the diverse facets of the organisation from the perspective of a consumer, who simply wants to uncover what the “responsibility” behind this government owned company is, in addition to providing us, the public, with energy and water.
The premise of our journey throughout this series is simple: Let’s get to know NV GEBE – the history, leadership, employees, challenges, victories, sustainability, progression and new way forward, while simultaneously gaining a comprehensive understanding of their role to us, the consumers.
Part I: The Foundation will focus on the founding pillars of the organisation, its history and understanding its daily commitment to the St. Maarten community.
Part II: Positive Leadership = Positive Employees will provide you with a candid introduction to NV GEBE’s managing board and employees, and provide you with the responses to the consumer questions introduced in Part 1.
Part III: Sustainability in Devastation will inform you of the significant role NV GEBE played during pre & post Hurricane Irma, and how the organisation was instrumental in getting St. Maarten back on track.
Part IV: The Way Forward – the series concludes with reviewing NV GEBE’s goals for the future and its continued commitment to fostering the sustainability of St. Maarten.
I have always admired that saying, “In order to understand anything, you must return to the history.”
While conducting the first stages of my research, I was fortunate enough to locate details about the history of the organisation in the book GEBE through the Years, Power to Serve written by the House of Nehesi Publishers, 2006.
“It was 1960 when the electricity company NV GESM was formed as an equal partnership between OGEM, a Dutch Company in Willemstad, Curaçao and the Central Government of the Netherlands Antilles, with OGEM having full managerial control.
“GESM shortly after changed its name to NV GEBE to reflect the fact that it was set up to supply and distribute electricity to then ‘island territory of the Windward islands’ of St. Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius.
“The OGEM management period lasted 22 years. The central government took full ownership of GEBE after OGEM ended its operations in 1982. The company established management locally on Sint Maarten in 1995 and handled water distribution for the island government thereafter.
“The year 2005 marked a double celebration for GEBE, the first decade of St. Maarten management and their 45th anniversary. In 2006, the Windward Islands territory took full control of GEBE from the central government.
“In December 2013, another proud milestone was achieved with the official signing of the transfer of shares giving St. Maarten 100% ownership of the utility company NV GEBE as of January 1, 2014, while STUCO and SEC were established on St. Eustatius and Saba respectively.”
I was intrigued by the historical background of the organisation, but I wanted more. Understanding the history satisfied some of my interests, but many questions were still unanswered. I wanted to know how the history of the organisation was directly linked to how NVGEBE affects my life on a daily basis.
In short, I wanted to know how I received energy and water every day. Of course, it is more complicated than simply flipping on a light switch and opening a faucet. Well, we all know that it is definitely much more complicated than that, especially after experiencing Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017, when the supply of electricity and water was extremely affected; but let’s not jump the gun and stay focused. We will address that in Part III.
The book didn’t disappoint me and my answers became more and more evident the more I read. “The production and distribution of electricity to over 20,000 consumers (i.e. clients) is the sole responsibility of NV GEBE. Power is generated through the use of fossil fuels which power the engines.
“In the near future, NV GEBE will be going green with the use of renewable energy which will lessen the carbon footprint and lessen the usage of fossil fuels to generate electricity.”
After reading that excerpt, I remember thinking that NV GEBE has a huge responsibility to this community. I am not just one end user of electricity; there are at least 19,999 other consumers depending on GEBE’s daily ability to provide all of us with something we must have.
However, I started thinking “out of the box” – it wasn’t just the consumers GEBE was supplying; but also businesses, agencies, offices, medical facilities, restaurants, shelters, hotels, government agencies, etc.
Now my interests piqued further and I couldn’t just stop at electricity. I also wanted to know how they managed to get water to my home, your home, your apartment, your condo, your villa every day.
So I read further and found the answer: “NV GEBE is responsible for the distribution of water. Once the water is produced, it is stored in the main water tanks in Cay Hill & Pointe Blanche and then distributed to other tanks throughout the island. From there, the water is distributed through NV GEBE’s water grid to the client’s water meter.”
I immediately had a paradigm shift – my thinking regarding the power and energy company had changed. I no longer saw NV GEBE as the producer of an email request for payment in my inbox every month. I realised that because of their commitment to fostering community sustainability through electrical and water services daily to 20,000 consumers, they demanded my personal respect.
We have only touched on the surface of NV GEBE in Part I. As we proceed to Part II, we will go in-depth in getting to know the managing board and the employees. Part III will highlight how NV GEBE was able to directly support us through one of the most horrific, devastating hurricanes to hit this country; and Part IV will conclude the series with reviewing NV GEBE’s goals for the future and continued commitment to fostering the sustainability of St. Maarten.
