It has been just under two weeks since the Anguilla Electricity Company Limited (ANGLEC) took a bold stand and suspended electricity to the Water Corporation of Anguilla (WCA) for non-payment of some EC$13 million owed to the company over a period of years.
Under the leadership of a new management team, the cash-strapped electricity company has been aggressively trying to collect all outstanding debt in an effort to meet its monthly excessively high diesel cost to keep its generators running – and the island’s electricity uninterrupted.
The Honourable Premier, Dr Ellis Webster, spoke on the ANGLEC/WCA situation at the government press briefing on Monday, July 18.
“We do know that ANGLEC’s new CEO has stated that WCA owes over thirteen million EC dollars. We have not confirmed that number as yet, but we know it is in that range – and it is an historic debt.
“Water has been trying to meet its current obligations and the Chairman, Mr Kennedy Hodge, has indicated that there is a lot of leakage in the piping network. The revenue seems to be less than the expenditure [which makes it] difficult for them to pay the current bill and also set up a payment plan for arrears.
“Government has been utilising whatever funds it has available to help the WCA to stay current or contribute to their electricity bill since last December.
“The environmental levy of 7%, which ANGLEC would usually collect on behalf of the Government of Anguilla, has not been collected from ANGLEC since November of 2021. The concern here is that ANGLEC is stating that the Government of Anguilla owes the money that the WCA owes, and that’s technically not correct. Certainly, the Government of Anguilla knows that water is an essential service, and will assist wherever we can.”
The Premier indicated that the government has ongoing talks with ANGLEC concerning the WCA’s outstanding debt.
“We have been speaking with ANGLEC, but ANGLEC has since cut electricity to the WCA which is now operating under its own generator power. This is concerning because it is not sustainable, and now the Government of Anguilla has to help in that regard. The cost of diesel for the WCA is similar to diesel that has to be bought by ANGLEC and, in this case, it is redundant because ANGLEC still has to run its generators to supply power whether the WCA is on the grid or not.
“So, we continue discussions with ANGLEC at all levels and we hope that this can result, in short order, where we have a continued supply of electricity to all services, customers and businesses in Anguilla.
“Water is an essential service and government takes notice of that. Electricity is an essential service and that too is a concern that the Government of Anguilla has pertaining to ANGLEC’s ability to reach that obligation.”
The Premier also spoke on the issue of moving toward using renewable energy sources on Anguilla.
“I want to state for the record that this administration is hell bent on getting a renewable energy supply of electricity in Anguilla, and I think ANGLEC is of similar thought. The concerns here would be how that will be done.
“We [the government] feel that it is necessary, given the financial status of ANGLEC, that we have an investor(s) provide the renewable energy supply and ANGLEC to distribute it through a power purchase agreement or other mechanism. ANGLEC is of the opinion that they start with an 8-megawatt supply, just over half of our current peak supply. With that they can then decrease the cost of producing electricity and then expand over time.”
In a radio address on Thursday, July 14, ANGLEC’s CEO, Mr Sutcliffe Hodge, presented the company’s approach to rolling out renewable energy on the island. He noted that the renewable energy stations would be 100% owned by ANGLEC and the people of Anguilla, as the project would be funded through grant assistance and concessionary loans – of which ANGLEC and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) are in discussions.
Mr Hodge explained that there would be two phases to their roll out of renewable energy.
In the first phase, an 8-megawatt solar farm would be commissioned in early 2023 and the second phase – the build out of two 4-megawatt wind turbines would immediately follow.
He explained that the total cost of phase one and phase two of ANGLEC’s renewable energy plan would incur a one-off cost – the same as the cost the company is currently paying for a one-year supply of diesel to run the generators. This “fact” is the company’s supporting argument for not entering into a power-purchase agreement with another entity – an entity to which ANGLEC and Anguilla would be obligated for 20-30 years.
Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr Ellis Webster, has a different approach to Anguilla’s renewable energy aspirations: “We [the government] would be more minded to have an investor build a farm – solar, wind, or other means of renewable – that caters not only for our current peak, but also for our projected need of over 25-megawatts.
“These talks continue at the ANGLEC level – the Board and the CEO – and at the government level. We also have an administering power that would be minded to know that we continue to provide these services in Anguilla – both water and electricity.”
