A recent report issued on May 10th, 2023 according to the BBC, stated that billions of pounds’ worth of green energy projects are on hold because they cannot plug into the UK’s electricity system. Some new solar and wind sites are waiting up to 10 to 15 years to be connected because of a lack of capacity in the system, known as the “grid”.
In the Government press conference of Monday 15th May, 2023 The Anguillian’s James Harrigan referenced this report, and asked the Honourable Minister of Infrastructure Haydn Hughes if that issue was applicable to Anguilla.
“Mr. Hughes, now that the former ANGLEC Board has been dismissed, and a new Board is in place, it would be expected that this current Board would follow the Government’s bidding for a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Under this PPA, it is the Government’s plan to furnish Anguilla with 100% renewable energy within a relatively short time.
“ANGLEC’s former Chairman of the Board had hinted, all along, that it would have been unsafe due to a lack of grid capacity, to provide 100% renewable energy all at once. Hence, the former ANGLEC Board had opted to implement its renewable energy electricity to the local grid in phases.
“Mr. Hughes, obviously the size of Anguilla cannot be compared with the UK. However, if the Government, with the new ANGLEC Board, pursues the plan for a PPA’s 100% supply of renewable energy, are you not concerned that, as it turned out in the UK, Anguilla will, as the former Chairman of the Board advised, encounter a situation where there would be a lack of grid capacity for 100% renewable energy electricity?” Mr. Harrigan asked.
Minister Hughes first responded by saying that whereas England is a country of over 60 million people, Anguilla has a population of only 15 thousand.
“Of course, once you are developing renewable energy electricity,” he said, “you would need to develop the grid in tandem. But one of the things to understand is that we (the government) have a plan by which we would implement 100% renewable energy electricity within the shortest possible time — within a two year period. It may be unrealistic, but that is our goal.”
“The goal that members of the former Board and the CEO had, on the other hand, was to implement the first phase of renewable energy electricity and ‘fifteen years’ later implement the second phase. We don’t know when that would have actually happened,” he said. “But what I can say, is that for decades persons on the former Board have been talking about renewable energy electricity, and as an administration which campaigned on the mantra of ‘Change Can’t Wait’, we can’t wait for fifteen years on renewable energy electricity. We want to get this thing done and get it done now. The technology is out there.”
“I am not saying it must be 100% solar or 100% wind or 100% geothermal,” the Minister continued. “A hybrid might be the best way to move forward. But we have a goal…Our goal may be to have it all done by 2025, for example, but it may be done by 2026. Or, by 2024 even.”
When asked if he thought that technically Anguilla has sufficient grid capacity to introduce 100% renewable energy electricity over such a short period, Minister Hughes answered: “Technically, we have the capacity to do anything that our hearts desire.”
Weighing in on the matter, the Honourable Minister of Education and Social Development, Ms. Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers said “When it comes to renewable energy, the goal of this administration is to reduce the cost of electricity for Anguillians. This involves everyone [including] individual consumers, families and businesses. We know that it is a major cost to produce electricity, and this high cost to produce, translates in high bills for the consumer.”
“As far as the plan to go to renewable energy is concerned, unless something is done now, the consumer will stay in that situation where there will always be a high cost of living,” she said. “And that is why this administration has been pushing so hard for something to take place with renewable energy electricity. Nothing has taken place (with ANGLEC) and now we are trying for something to take place because it is important to reduce the cost of living here in Anguilla.”
