A team from AMALA attended the 3rd Regional Energy Minister’s Meeting, presenting a strategic paper on advancing sustainable energy in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Produced for the OECS Commission, which was the host organization of the ministerial gathering, the paper examines the energy challenges faced by the Member States of the OECS. In particular, it emphasizes the impact of the region’s heavy reliance on imported diesel that drives globally high electricity prices, and the need to diversify into cheaper generation source to lower costs to consumer and support economic growth.
In their presentation, the AMALA team highlighted that the intent of the paper is to “identify opportunities for leveraging renewable energy (RE) resources—geothermal, solar, and wind—to provide more affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy alternatives in the OECS.” The team’s assessment focuses on two critical areas:
1.Strategic planning actions that ministers can adopt to steer long-term energy development, and
2.Project-level measures that are collectively required to mobilize investments and realize renewable energy targets.
AMALA’s Managing Director, Migara Jayawardena, stressed that strategic planning and project-level execution “are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary to achieve the regional objective of increasing the share of renewable energy supplied to the grids”. The OECS Commission noted that implementing such concerted actions can help “overcome barriers, such as regulatory constraints and financing challenges, and successfully scale RE deployment."
While in the region, Mr. Jayawardena and Devanshi Patnaik, AMALA’s Manager for Energy and Strategy, also met with officials from NEVLEC, the electricity utility on Nevis, and visited the proposed site for exploratory drilling and the construction of the first geothermal power plant in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. This project, which will also feature the first inter-island, submarine interconnection in the Eastern Caribbean, represents a major milestone in regional energy integration. Through site visits and discussions, productive exchanges were held exploring ways in which the project could be supported by the OECS Commission, including through AMALA’s capacity as Regional Economic Advisor to the OECS.
For more info, contact info@amalaenergy.com.