7 minute read
Interview - APUA
THE VALUE OF CONSERVATION
Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Ian Lewis and Sharifa George, Water Business Unit Manager and Public Relations Coordinator at Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA), about the green initiative, adapting to climate change, and delivering quality services.
By Izzy Moss
Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA)
is a government organization established in 1973, for the purpose of bringing all utilities throughout Antigua and Barbuda, including electricity, water and telecommunications, under one management. Introduced under the Public Utilities Act No. 10 of 73. It is headed by a General Manager who reports to the board and a Minister of Government, who in turn reports to the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda. Prior to establishment in 1970, APUA was run by Stanley Consultants, an external operator with responsibility for the management of electricity throughout the country. To this day, Antigua remains the only Caribbean island nation that remains to have all three utilities of electricity, water and telecommunications combined.
DAY-TO-DAY OPERATIONS
Across the Caribbean, it was once the norm for utilities to be grouped under the oversight of a single company. As of today, however, the vast majority have splintered into separate departments. Antigua, with its utilities controlled by APUA, is an exception to the rule. “The government felt at the time it was best if all the engineers were on one location, all being utilities,” says Ian Lewis, Water Business Unit Manager of APUA. “The financing comes under one heading; therefore, it is a lot easier to transfer money between departments. In our case, the water department is heavily subsidized by the electricity business unit. Another advantage is sharing resources like engineers, if a project is underway, APUA have access to the engineers needed from each department without having to contract an outside company.”
“APUA’s electricity business unit puts out approximately 55-megawatts on average to the grid, which is our peak demand,” says Mr. Lewis. “This, presently, is being managed by an Independent Power Producer (IPP) on a contract. APUA is responsible for the transmission, distribution and billing side of electricity, but the power is being generated by an IPP. Water generated is about 8 million
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gallons per day demand, and all of that is generated by APUA assets. At this point in time, we have been asked by the government to ensure that, during drought periods, we are able to match our demand. We are presently installing additional desalination units. We just signed off a contract to expand our desalination installations by an additional 3.2 million gallons, which we hope to have installed within the next 10 to 12 months. Lastly, what was called the telephone department has evolved into what is now called telecommunications. They have moved from being a telephone provider to providing landlines, mobile and internet services. In the case of the latter, they have just embarked on providing fiber optics to the homes.”
GREEN INITIATIVE
APUA have a Green Antigua Initiative that was introduced roughly 10 years ago, aiming to spread the message of conservation in the context of water and electricity to several target groups. “Essentially, this was in response to the fact that unnatural water catchments were decreasing much faster than they used to because of climate change,” says Sharifa George, Public Relations Coordinator of APUA. “Water has been the focal point of our conservation exercise because we’re currently in a drought, which we’ve been combatting since 2010. We’ve attempted to mitigate the impacts by introducing a conservation schedule. We have sought to separate society into two groups: the most impressionable, which is young people aged 12 and under, and mature adults. Our program speaks about conservation to children by educating them about the water production process. APUA primarily produces water through reverse osmosis. It is intense in terms of resources, electricity and finances. We try to express how precious water is as a resource, and for them to develop an appreciation of it. We then go into ways that they can have water in their homes and providing them with suggestions they can practice. We have found that once children get on board, their parents are more likely to follow suit.”
APUA approach adults about conservation slightly differently. “We try to establish the value of conservation when it comes to saving costs, so that bills can be at a manageable rate and, at the same time, protecting the environment,” says Ms. George. “This initiative has worked for us. Most recently we have introduced the 2021 Water Conservation Schedule for the present drought. As COVID-19 becomes more manageable, we hope to resume this program. If not, we plan to make it virtual via presentations in primary schools. We do not want to miss a generation of young persons
who need to learn about conservation, and the unique situation we have in Antigua and in the Caribbean when it comes to drought.”
CLIMATE VARIABILITY
“Climate change and climate variability has resulted in only receiving enough rainfall to replenish our surface water catchments,” explains Mr. Lewis. “That is only if there is a storm or tropical wave, normal rainfall does not replenish our storage anymore. Once we get one of those events, which is normally once per year, it will give us enough runoff to provide about six months’ worth of water. Once that is consumed, we must wait until the next storm. For example, we had rain in November last year, in 2020, and we were able to extract and produce enough portable water until June of this year, 2021. That was about seven months as we were waiting for the next tropical event to replenish our resources. This is the pattern we have been seeing over the last six or seven years.”
To combat these challengers of less rainfall, APUA are in the process of installing systems that can store far more water to meet the public demand. “It has become more of a problem, which is why we are forced to go into the direction of having water available via desalination,” says Mr. Lewis. “Once installed, we should be able to produce enough capacity that we will not have to depend on either surface water or groundwater anymore to contribute towards our daily demand, we will be able to do that via desalination alone. We will have enough installed capacity to provide 100% of the demand. In this process we are required to consider the climate, environment and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since water production through reverse osmosis is heavily dependent on electricity, we can benefit from the introduction of renewable energy on the grid. Currently, the electricity business unit utilizes renewable energy via solar panels. We have established a partnership with an international Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) company called Eagle Limited, so they provide us with LNG. This is the first renewable energy with the use of LNG and is far more environmentally friendly as opposed to a diesel engine. This project is at the beginning stages, we are hoping by next year to have our very first LNG terminal as well as an LNG for plants contributing to the electric future.”
FUTURE GOALS
“The objective of APUA, as a responsible organization, is to ensure whatever services we provide to our customers we do so with the environment in mind,” says Ms. George. “We aim to provide services and use resources that are considered environmentally-clean. For desalination, we use as much renewable energy as possible to reduce our carbon footprint. For telecommunications, we ensure whatever measures we take will not be harmful to the environment. APUA is an organization that is rising to the challenge of the needs of Antigua and Barbuda, where utility services are required. Our aim is to ensure the quality of services that we provide are on par with that of a first-world country.” c
