The government of St Vincent and The Grenadines, in conjunction with the Organization of American States (OAS) and other regional organizations on Friday held a multi-sector stakeholder consultation whose purpose was to present the government’s national energy policy and to start the discussion on its draft national energy action plan.

The consultation is part of the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Program (CSEP) project, which the OAS is carrying out in partnership with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), the CARICOM Secretariat, and the Caribbean Energy Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC).

St Vincent & The Grenadines is reported to be the first country in the OECS to finalise, approve and publish its national energy policy.  Work on the policy commenced in 2005 and the final document was approved by the cabinet of ministers in March 2009. 

The consultation heard remarks by Mr Leonard Deane, director of energy, Mrs Melene Glynn, head of the St Vincent & the Grenadines OAS office, and a feature address by Dr Jerrol Thompson, minister of science, technology and telecommunications. Presentations were made by the agencies and consultants involved in the development of the policy and plan, and by St Vincent Electricity Services Ltd.

The stated guiding principles of the policy are:

• Guarantee a clean, reliable and affordable energy supply to customers;
• Strengthen the national economy by reducing the dependence on import of fossil fuels;
• Stabilize and possibly reduce the energy consumption per capita in the medium and long term;
• Reduce the dependence on import of energy through continued and expanded exploitation of indigenous resources and improvement of energy efficiency and/or conservation of energy use;
• Liberalize the energy market by encouraging and accommodating private sector participation in energy development and energy services, thereby enhancing competitiveness and engendering lower prices;
• Take advantage of renewable, local energy resources, wherever this is possible from the aspects of availability (potential), energy demand, technical and social implications, economic feasibility, ecological harmony and sustainability;
• To always encourage and stimulate the efficient use of all energy resources, keeping in mind that all types of energy are either scarce or need significant amounts of capital to be tapped or transposed into applicable forms of energy use;
• In all its decision making with respect to energy services development, the Government will strongly promote the active participation of the energy sector, the general public, NGOs, etc.;
• In delivering energy services, government will minimise subsidies to consumers and set prices and tariffs in such in way that they timely reflect full cost but taking into account ways to relieve the price burden on the lowest income households;
• Take advantage of national expertise and know-how as far as possible for the development and delivery of energy services. Where importation of resources is required, provide incentives for the use of the most available technology;
• Ensure that the measures taken in pursuing this energy policy is in line with the requirements and legal implications of the Caribbean Single Market Economy (CSME).

During the afternoon session comments were invited from the attendees - representatives from the energy, finance & banking, agriculture, local business and government sectors.

The discussion included comments on issues relating to the management of water resources for hydropower and other uses; transport sector and road design/engineering issues; the availability of data and information for planning purposes; education of stakeholders and the public in energy issues; the extent of present and future solar water heating use; interconnection of the mainland and Grenadines power grids; the status of the ongoing geothermal investigations; fiscal incentives for the encouragement of renewable energy use and the role of the rebound effect in energy efficiency efforts.

The next steps in the process are for the draft energy action plan to be circulated by the energy unit to the participants in the consultation, for their further comments.  Once comments have been received, the draft will be reviewed and finalized, and the national energy action plan will be published. This activity is scheduled to be completed before the end of 2009.

Go to SVG National Energy Policy

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