DP Faction Leader in Parliament Hon. Member of Parliament Roy Marlin announced a few days ago that his faction would be presenting a draft law amendment to the ordinance granting the electricity concession to power and water utility company N.V. GEBE.
The draft law amendment is expected according to the DP faction leader to be presented during the upcoming public handling of the 2012 national budget.
According to Minister of Energy Affairs Theo Heyliger, the Government of Sint Maarten has identified energy issues that are of great importance for the island and has subsequently developed a draft energy policy addressing the energy issues and the actions needed to move policy to implementation, with the ultimate goal of ensuring a sustainable, affordable and environmental friendly energy situation for the country.
Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Development, Environment, Infrastructure and Energy Affairs Hon. Theo Heyliger, says the national Green Energy Plan for the country will also provide in allowing households and commercial enterprises to produce electrical energy with renewable energy sources like solar power and wind power for their own consumption while it will be facilitated to deliver the surplus of power produced to the GEBE grid, making use of net metering.
Other identified energy issues are moving away from the use of diesel #2 and heavy fuel oil for power production; the introduction of a country-wide energy efficiency program; and pursue improved efficiency at GEBE.
Seek for renewable energy options such as a wind farm or solar panel arrays; enabling households and commercial clients to install small renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. Tax incentives and attractive loans for individual consumers would be also considered.
A study would also be made of the impact of introducing Smart Grid concepts for an improved electric supply chain from the power plant to the customer premises. One of the Smart Grid concepts considered is prepaid metering.
Next to renewable energy options, introduction of LNG should also be studied. The impact on tariffs as well as on the environmental advantages looks interesting according to the draft policy document. The LNG study may also cover natural gas supply for household cooking gas and for the transportation sector.
The study on the feasibility of LNG besides looking at usage for cooking gas will also look at the usage as vehicle fuel. At the same time, the feasibility of introducing electric cars will also be explored.