SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--GEBE has launched an information-sharing campaign for August, aimed at building a healthier relationship with its customers.

The campaign is the initiative of Iris Arrindell, who has been with the company for 25 years and who, as of July 1, became the first woman to become a manager at GEBE in its 55-year existence, in her new capacity as Commercial Manager.

The campaign was launched with a press conference on Friday concerning general matters, an introduction to the managers of various departments and updates that also will be aired on TV and on the radio. It was the first press conference held by GEBE Chief Financial Officer Rene Gartner in that capacity.

Gartner introduced various managers in addition to Arrindell: Kenrick Chittick, Ramiro Hernandez, Leandro Amarello, Clifford Sasso and Patrick Drijvers, all with 15 years’ experience and more at the company, and briefly introduced some key projects before answering questions from the press.

Developments described to improve efficiency were mainly the renewal of the water tanks and waterlines to reduce the leaks in the network, the replacement of older less-accurate water meters and studies into the use of alternative energy sources.

There are two new and four slated water tank locations at this point in time. The replacement of waterlines entails larger projects with more planning and better materials. These are aimed at reducing water losses for which GEBE is known, Gartner said, and to reduce cost to the consumer.

Current net losses are around 30 per cent, and the target is 20 per cent. It used to be 40 per cent when Gartner joined around 10 months ago. Terrain posed the biggest challenge for St. Maarten, considering, for example, the island’s hills and population spread. A comparison was made to Aruba, which only experiences 5 per cent in net losses.

The switch in meters from analog to digital will enable the company to look more proactively into problems such as backflow and tampering. The same will be done for electric meters, but water meters are first priority.

Renewables

International studies are being conducted on alternative energy, which should be ready in the year’s fourth quarter, enabling decisions based on factual information.

As for renewable energy, solar seems to be the most feasible for the island. The idea was to spread solar panels on various government buildings. The process also has risks, however; for example, the financial risk of roof-damage claims and/or needing to have engineers continuously assess structures.

In response to a question, Gartner said St. Maarten was lagging behind the curve on solar energy, but a tariff study was planned, along with research on technical installation specifications.

In response to a media member’s comment on the business community being hesitant to install solar panels because doing so falls into a legal grey area, Gartner said it was “not clear-cut,” but that permission indeed was needed for those producing more than 500 kilowatt hours. However, it is largely unregulated and Gartner said it also posed a risk in destabilising GEBE’s grid.

One of the most awaited updates was that of a waste-to-energy plant.

“That’s a very complicated story and we are working on that to not find ourselves in a situation where we financially commit GEBE for a very long time and put ourselves in a financially disadvantageous position.

“So, we are studying that very carefully. One of the advantages of having a waste-to-energy plant is … a mound of stuff [referring to the nearby dump – Ed.] that has to be processed just keeps increasing. … If we can do something that is beneficial to the company and to the country, that’s fine. If it is something that will be financially devastating to the company, we should stay away from it,” Gartner said.

He added that there was an older proposal that had been “rejected several months ago because of exactly that cost element,” this being that the cost the plant would charge GEBE for the energy was more than it would cost GEBE to produce it. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Other issues

In regard to the absence of Chief Operations Officer (COO) Romelio Maduro, Gartner said the workload indeed had increased for him, but he and the teams were managing well in general. Although it is not his decision, he said another COO might be expected in around two months.

In regard to the Senior Relief Programme, which is being implemented for a second time, Human Resources Manager Sasso explained that it was a fixed amount of available relief, so there had been a change in the structure because more people had signed up: 683 compared to 313 in the pilot programme.

Concerning digitalisation and adding payment options such as EasyPay, Gartner said a number of institutions had offered options, but these were expensive and GEBE would be able to handle its own digitalisation programme more efficiently.

GEBE is trying to encourage more people to pay online and to collect information digitally, and Arrindell said the website indeed had been growing in popularity.

At the same time, other physical locations are being sought to be used as payment centres and in preferring owning a building to renting one, an estimated 12 months would be needed before new payment centres would materialise. The decision already has been approved on the board level and the company now is looking into the project’s financial feasibility.

Concerning oil prices, Gartner said the fuel oil clauses were calculated once a month and went with the billing cycle adjusted to the same market prices.

A bottleneck identified in putting remaining cables underground was said to be the need for permission from various owners of private property.