Between July and September of last year 2022, ANGLEC had no cash in the Bank and no reserves and was bleeding [EC]$1.5 million a month. During that same period, an unremitting exchange of stressful, nail-biting correspondence between management and Delta Petroleum flew back and forth over arrears owed by ANGLEC to Delta for fuel in amounts in excess of [EC$]1.2 million. While Anguilla continued business as normal, the specter of a total blackout of electricity hung in the balance averted only by the character and trust of the principal players on both sides of the issue and by an aggressive collection of outstanding debts owed to ANGLEC by some consumers.
On October 27th, 2022, this company’s AGM elected a new board. I was one of those elected. Six days later on November 2nd, I was elected to chair that board. In less than 5 months along with an aggressive redirection of policies and refreshed management principles I can report with some satisfaction that:
As of today, ANGLEC has [EC$]8.4 million in the bank in cash and on this trajectory should end up with [EC$]24 million by year’s end; ANGLEC is out of overdraft for the first time in seven years; is still owed [EC$]14 million by the Water Corporation; has a new 3 year fuel supply contract with SOL which is stable even in the face of high and volatile fuel prices; has not received any subsidies from Government to offset the skyrocketing cost of fuel as has been done by so many other jurisdictions in the Caribbean; has continued to subsidize the cost of electricity by refraining from charging the full fuel surcharge authorized by legislation; has a long term maintenance contract with WARTSILA, the maker of our diesel generators and has entered into an N.D.A. with WARTSILA to explore a partnership if and when a rational transition to Renewable Energy is executed with the use of their sophisticated integration technologies vital for the stability required for integrating intermittent energy into the grid.
That satisfaction is however diminished by the inability of the Board to execute a well researched and far reaching plan for an orderly, economically sound and even visionary plan for transition to Renewable Energy and then on to a fully Green Energy supply due to its imminent termination this evening.
I am satisfied that with the active support of the CDB, which I take the opportunity here to thank publicly, we have been able to ground our technical assumptions with hard scientific data and make reasonable and rational projections for a phased transition to Renewables which, in two phases lasting between eighteen to twenty four months, would have eliminated the fuel surcharge entirely, as 50 % of present fuel use would be eliminated. In addition, with the enthusiastic support of WARTSILA we were on the cusp of a remarkable demonstration project which could, with vision and hard work, flip Anguilla into a totally Green Energy status in 5 years or less with phase 3 of our strategic plan. Our failure to deliver on this is a sincere regret and for me personally a deep disappointment.
But as the saying goes “it is what it is”. We are all Anguillians and we know how this game is played again and again to the detriment of this Company. As I have said before, electrons and elections don’t mix and there are those who for political reasons will repeat falsehoods again and again without regard for fact and truth. Once again, yet another failure of the imagination will beset us as we export for no good reason the control of the energy sector to external interests who have no interest in us other than to make a quick buck. I have no appetite for this folly and will simply leave those proponents of this course to the truth of scripture as expressed in Proverbs chapter 16 vs 22.
In closing I wish to thank those persons who gave me a chance, short as it was to serve an institution so vital to the well-being of us all. I thank those Directors who stood for the truth and spoke that truth to power and who served with enthusiasm and devotion to their duty. And I wish to thank the C.E.O. Mr. Sutcliffe Hodge for breathing a new breath of managerial competence and innovation to the operations of ANGLEC.
