Statement
STATEMENT BY MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND WORKS
HONOURABLE KYE M. RYMER
AT THE EIGHTH SITTING OF THE FIRST SESSION
OF THE FIFTH HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
ON THE CABLE AT JOST VAN DYKE
Tuesday 20th February 2023
Madam Speaker, since 17th September of last year, the residents of Jost Van Dyke have endured inconveniences and uncertainties due to receiving power from a standby generator. This became necessary after a fault occurred on a section of the lone subsea power cable from the electrical grid between Tortola and Jost Van Dyke, rendering it unusable.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to report that on 15th February, the British Virgin Islands Electricity Corporation (BVIEC) successfully restored power to the entire island.
I must take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the General Manager, Dr. Neil Smith, and his entire team for their valiant efforts in supporting Jost Van Dyke during the period of the interruption. They demonstrated immediate response, regardless of the time of day or night, to correct any concerns regarding the generator that supplied power island-wide. The BVI Electricity Corporation was also vigilant in stationing technical personnel on Jost Van Dyke during the New Year's Celebrations, to be able to immediately address any issues that may have developed during that time.
Madam Speaker, while the presence of this generator on Jost van Dyke was a temporary resolution, the BVI Electricity Corporation recognized that it was an inconvenience for the residents in the form of the noise, and frequent outages that were needed to ensure that the generator was regularly serviced.
Commercially as well, it has also been a net loss to the Corporation. However, it must be noted that despite the high relative cost of operating the generator to provide a temporary source of electricity on Jost Van Dyke, the rates and charges to the residents have remained at the same per unit price of electricity charged to every other customer in these Beautiful Virgin Islands.
In a very limited/negligible way, due to the additional use of fuel to generate power on Jost Van Dyke, the fuel surcharge rates for all customers are affected. However, due to the insignificant volumes of fuel consumed relative to the fuel consumption used by BVIEC to power the rest of the territory, the changes in fuel surcharge calculation is unnoticeable as it is fractions of a cent on each dollar spent. Maintenance, repair and transportation costs are fully absorbed by the Corporation and not transferred to customers.
Madam Speaker, the residents' inconvenience and the high cost of operating the generator were some of the driving forces of the Corporation's urgent efforts to repair the subsea cable. Now that the cable is repaired, there will be a significant reduction in costs for supplying consistent and reliable power to the island.
I must emphasize that the additional costs incurred to maintain electricity supply to Jost Van Dyke, beyond the negligible effect on the total fuel cost per unit generated for all BVI customers, were never passed on to the island’s customers. Even though the materials to correct the cable fault arrived late last year, the Corporation attempted to repair the cable multiple times; unfavorable sea conditions prevented them from doing so.
The repairs on the cable required a stable platform at sea, which was not possible during the swells on the north shore of Tortola at this time of the year. I am confident that, despite the residents' desire to see the fault repaired sooner no one would wish to see serious bodily harm or a fatality because of the Corporation conducting these repairs in adverse safety conditions.
Despite the materials to correct the cable fault arriving late last year and the Corporation's multiple attempts, the nature as I mentioned Madam Speaker the cable repairs because of the unstable conditions.
Madam Speaker, the residents of Jost Van Dyke faced significant inconvenience and the Corporation incurred high operational costs due to the use of that generator. These factors were the main drivers, Madam Speaker behind again the Corporation's vigorous efforts to repair this subsea cable.
Madam Speaker I must thank the good people of Jost Van Dyke for their patience and forbearance during the past five months of this inconvenience.
Madam Speaker I thank you.
