PHILIPSBURG:--- During the tenure of former Minister William Marlin of the National Alliance, the Waste to Energy Plant would have cost the people of St. Maarten a total of ZERO investment. The terms of reference was designed as such that the WTE supplier would be granted a concession for 20 to 25 years where GEBE would buy the Energy generated by the WTE plant. So you see MP Heyliger, you are not correct. Things can be done for free, in the beginning at least, resulting in no huge debt for the people of St. Maarten.
MP Heyliger also has a unique ability to confuse the numbers, so let us try to clarify things here for the Honorable MP. All relevant numbers are in Guilders.
- The WTE plant would produce 8 Mw or 8000 Kw.
- Over 24 hours this would be 24 X 8000 = 192,000 Kwh per day
- Over a year this would be 365 X 192,000 = 70,080,000 Kwh per year.
Currently GEBE’s electricity rate is approximately 0.48 per Kwh.
Under a National Alliance Government, the companies estimated a Kwh price of between 0.31 and 0.45 per Kwh. Taking the above into consideration the WTE would collect a yearly amount of:
- 70,080,000 X 0.45 (let’s take the bigger number) = 31,356,000 Guilders
- For the 20 to 25 year term of the concession the WTE Company would collect a grand total of:
- 20 X 31,356,000 = 627,120,000 Guilders or
- 25 X 31,356,000 = 783,900,000 Guilders
According to MP Heyliger, this is not a valid deal and St. Maarten or GEBE needs to invest in this project to make it feasible. The strange thing is even with an investment by the people of St. Maarten or GEBE he still envisions a cost of 0.56 per Kwh.
To use the numbers of Honorable MP Heyliger, who it appears is confused and still thinks he sits in the chair of the Minister we get the following:
- An investment of a minimum of 200 Million Guilders (cost of most 8Mw plants)
- 70,080,000 (Kwh per year) X 0.56 = 39,244,800 Guilders
- For the 20 to 25 year term of the concession the WTE Company would collect a grand total of:
- 20 X 39,244,800 = 784,896,000 Guilders or
- 25 X 39,244,800 = 981,120,000 Guilders (close to a Billion Guilders)
We would assume that GEBE would benefit somewhat from this Billion Guilders being a share holder in the WTE. MP Heyliger needs to explain why GEBE would invest if it is not necessary.
So with MP Heyligers’ terms of reference, the people of St. Maarten would be burdened with a loan of a minimum of 200 Million Guilders. We even heard of a figure of 700 Million Guilders which we don’t quite understand. In addition we would also be paying more for Electricity than we are currently paying.
With the terms of reference of MP William Marlin the people of St. Maarten would not be burdened with any loan and the cost of electricity would be lower, saving the people of St. Maarten Millions of Guilders over the years.
Since MP Heyliger seems to know more about the entire issue than the Minister and has taken it upon himself to answer questions for the Minister. He should also answer the question as to why the done deal during the tenure of former Minister William Marlin was not executed by Former Minister Maurice Lake. Even more questionable, is why the deal done by former Minister Lake is not being considered. Why is MP Heyliger dead set on burdening the people of St. Maarten with yet another multi million guilder loan?
It’s all about negotiating in the interest of the people of St. Maarten MP Heyliger, it can be done!
Board of the National Alliance
