General Manager of the Anguilla Electricity Company (ANGLEC), Thomas Hodge, is to attend a CARILEC CEOs Symposium inGrenadafrom May 28-30.
CARILEC is an Association of Electricity Utilities in various parts of theCaribbean. The Utilities have come together to share human, intellectual and other resources in the interest of their operations and the people they serve.
“That Association has worked very well,” Mr. Hodge told The Anguillian. “In situations where an island gets hit by a hurricane, like in 1995 when Anguilla was struck by Hurricane Luis and was flattened, it were the resources of CARILEC that came in and helped Anguilla to come back in a very short time considering the extent of the damage.
“Right after Haiti got devastated by an earthquake, CARILEC also made a significant contribution to the restoration of electricity there. Those examples speak to the importance of CARILEC. Another important thing for CARILEC is the extent of training. If it were not for that organisation, we would not have as good a resource to train our mechanics, operators and linesmen. They are such specialised fields that we would have a very difficult time finding places where we can train them.
“CARILEC, therefore, allows us to take part in a bigger pool of resources so that we can operate almost like a big utility because we are part of a large body.”
Mr. Hodge said that about a year ago he was elected to serve on the Board of CARILEC. With that came the responsibility to attend Board meetings. “It is a tremendous opportunity for ANGLEC to be represented on the Board, as well, because we can actually put a lot of issues that affect us at these Board meetings and influence policy so that CARILEC can then respond to our needs.”
Mr. Hodge leaves Anguilla on Saturday for the meeting inGrenada.
