SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--Member of Parliament and leader of the United People's (UP) party Theo Heyliger announced on Wednesday the completion of the National Energy Policy for St. Maarten. The policy contains a list of measures and procedures necessary to mitigate the impact of energy usage on the environment while offering consumers lower tariffs for energy use.

"This represents building a new energy future for St. Maarten by harnessing the power of technology and innovation. This policy sets us on a course to making St. Maarten energy efficient," Heyliger said.

The National Energy Policy contains a series of measures to ensure a secure supply of energy, at affordable prices, with efficient use in an environmentally sound manner. The primary goal of this policy is to contribute towards a sustainable development of St. Maarten, reduce the country's dependency on imported fuels with the ever increasing fuel cost and also reduce the high carbon footprint of St. Maarten per capita.

Heyliger, who initiated the preparation of an energy policy when he was minister, explained that actions that are needed to move from policy to implementation are outlined in the policy, in order to move away from the use of diesel #2 and heavy fuel oils for power production for reasons of security of supply, price volatility and the environmental impact of emissions.

The objective is to provide St. Maarten with an assessment of renewable energy options and recommendations for renewable options that will result in 35 per cent renewable energy by 2016 (18 per cent due to the planned waste to energy plant). By 2020, St. Maarten's goal is to have 80 per cent of the electricity produced with renewable energy and alternative fuels. By 2025, the vision is to have achieved 100 per cent heavy fossil fuel oils free.

In order to move to a sustainable, affordable and environmental friendly energy situation, and to ensure an adequate and stable energy supply for an affordable price to all in society, the following critical issues and actions are addressed in this energy policy:

1. Move away from the use of diesel # 2 and heavy fuel oil for power production.

2. Introduce a country-wide Energy Efficiency program.

3. Pursue improved efficiency at N.V. GEBE's power station.

4. Promote the use of renewable energy options.

5. Study the impact of introducing smart grid concepts for an improved electric supply chain from major power plants to customer premises.

6. Study the introduction of liquid natural gas (LNG)/liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as an alternative to diesel and heavy fuel oil.

7. Study the possibilities for inter-island cable connections for importing renewable energy.

8. Study the options and economics of supplying power from the Saba and St. Eustatius geothermal power plant projects.

9. Continue with the plans for the waste to energy plant.

10. Study possibilities of introducing a regulatory framework for the power sector.

11. Draft terms and conditions for potential power supply from independent producers, households and businesses.

12. Study the options for vehicle fleet operations on natural gas and all electric (powered by solar energy).

13. Decrease environmental impact and carbon foot print.

14. Find opportunities for diversification and growth in domestic or external market in order to trigger a "virtuous" spiral of development.

Optimum Energy Mix

The types of renewable energy options available for St. Maarten are dependent on social, economic and environmental issues, electric infrastructure, energy supply systems and regulation factors that exist on the island. These issues will affect the cost, economics and viability of renewable energy options. Significant reductions in use of fossil fuels for electric generation can be obtained with the installation of a variety of renewable energy options. The results of the research done for the policy presents the following renewable options that can potentially be used and practically implemented in St. Maarten: solar energy wind energy from wind turbines, waste to energy, geothermal and LNG/LPG.

Net metering and feed-in tariffs

Small-scale power generation with e.g. solar panels has a big potential for households and small businesses. When these energy sources produce more energy than a household consumes, the excess in energy will be delivered back into the grid. The tariff received for this excess energy is called feed-in tariffs. With the regular (analogue) metres, the metre will run backwards when (renewable) energy produced by the consumer is fed into the grid, so energy used is compensated by feeding-in of the renewable energy, which is called net metering.

In such case, the feed-in tariff is equal to the unit price of energy the consumer pays to the electric utility. This can lower the electricity bill substantially, depending on the amount of renewable energy produced. N.V. GEBE is gradually replacing the analogue metres to digital ones, so the amount of generated energy fed into the grid can be closely monitored and measured.

In connection with expenses for measures to maintain grid stability, N.V.GEBE has its tariffs based on a base rate (for operational and capital expenditures and a reasonable rate of return) and a fuel surcharge, adjusted monthly for the actual fuel cost per kWh. It is suggested to incorporate the prices paid for renewable sources into an "energy charge," which replaces the "fuel surcharge."

This means that next to fuel costs per kWh also costs per kWh for the renewable energy as purchased from IPPs are incorporated into an energy charge. If the renewable energy prices per kWh are lower than the fuel expensess per kWh, the energy charge will be lower than what the fuel surcharge will be without the renewable energy sources. This way, the benefit of lower expenses per kWh for renewables is directly passed on to the customers. This has to be researched further however.