BVIEC HOPEFUL THAT CUSTOMERS WILL BENEFIT GREATLY FROM THE CARILEC RESILIENCY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECT

General Manager of BVIEC Leroy Abraham says the Corporation is waiting with bated breath to see what it believes will be the positive impact of the CARILEC Resiliency and Energy Efficiency Project in helping Virgin Islanders to make more educated decisions when managing their home’s energy consumption.

“We have high expectations at BVIEC that this would assist in terms of educating our customer base in being able to better managed and control their energy usage”, he said.

The British Virgin Islands is one of six overseas territories that have signed on to benefit from the 18 month energy resilience building project, intended to help territories reduce their climate vulnerability and the impact of the global crises.

The Project was designed under the theme “Overcoming Disruptions in times of Crisis: Weathering Social and Financial Impact of COVID 19 on the Energy Sector”, under the Resilience, Sustainable Energy and Marine Biodiversity Programme of the European Union and the French Government’s Expertise France Cooperation Agency.

CAREEP officially launched in February of this year.

The project specifically targets energy affordability for residential customers, including low income homes, out of work professionals formerly employed within the tourism sector and Energy Service Providers.

Abraham hopes that, through the mainstreaming of conservation measures and practices, the project will open the eyes of persons to one of the most effective and free to use measures of lowering their monthly spend on electricity.

“We’re looking very keenly to this project taking root in our community to provide our customers with the much needed information with regards to managing their energy… energy conservation is that low hanging fruit that requires zero investment, it doesn’t require you having to take funds to try to lower your usage. It comes from certain lifestyle changes”, he explained.

The education of residents on Energy Conservation measures and technologies will be coupled with skills training to diversify the local workforce, as well as efforts to create new business opportunities around innovative energy services.