Meeting Anguilla's Electricity Needs

The spate of power outages in Anguilla about a month ago had nothing to do with a lack of electricity as some persons may have thought. On the contrary, ANGLEC’s General Manager, Neil McConnie, said that in fact the company was wiring the new generating system and integrating it with the old one thus causing interruptions when the connections were not right.

Be that as it may, the outages caused some concern when there was really sufficient power to supply the island. What the outages did was to bring consumers to the realisation of how difficult and unsatisfactory the situation would be if the power station did not have the capacity to meet the island’s needs. The frequent shutdowns and low voltage experiences would have been untenable and a mockery of the times to which we have come.

It is this type of situation that the company has avoided by being proactive in securing two very large, state-of-the-art and versatile generators to substantially boost the output of the power station. The need for electricity has tremendously increased in Anguilla with the mass development now taking place and ANGLEC must be commended for ensuring that it is ahead of the power demand.

With the procurement of the new generators, it is understandable that consumers would wonder at what cost the service would now come to them. The company has not spoken of any increases in rates which Mr. McConnie said had not been moved up since 1997 except for the imposition of a levy for fuel. The fact that the engines have a certain level of fuel efficiency may avoid some added costs to customers particularly if oil prices on the world market remain stable but one really never knows until a change occurs.

It should be a matter of relief that despite the power of the new engines there are curbs on emissions and noise pollution, thus taking into consideration the interests and comfort of those who live near the station and the protection of the environment.

With the eventual commissioning of the generators, Anguilla’s electricity needs are expected to be met for a long time in the foreseeable future. If the service remains cost effective, and not an unbearable burden to ordinary consumers, the better will be the pleasure of having it at the high distribution level to which it has been taken.