Electricity workers play critical role in the economic growth of Nevis
CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (July 3, 2006) -- Premier and Minister with responsibility for Electricity on Nevis Hon Vance Amory called on staff at the Nevis Electricity Company (NEVLEC) to accept that they, through their utility, had a fundamentally important role to play in the economic growth and activity of Nevis.
He made the call on Thursday June 29, 2006 while he delivered the feature address at a ceremony to mark the start of a workshop which concluded on Friday at the Mount Nevis Hotel. The workshop, which has a second segment later this month, was designed for the company's lines and support staff to have a better understanding of how Nevlec worked.
"Electricity is a catalyst, the thing which drives almost every single piece of machinery which generates economic growth and development and because it is so critical as a catalyst it means that everybody focuses on electricity. There is really and truly very little avenue for substituting electricity here in Nevis for the bulk of the people.
"It is important for us to accept that we in NEVLEC have a fundamentally important role to play in maintaining the economic growth and activity of our country and we [NEVLEC} therefore can see ourselves as being indispensable to Nevis. We need to accept our role as being so important even more seriously because if we fail all else fails," he said.
Mr Amory told the participants that it was critical that they exposed themselves to training since a better understanding of how their utility worked meant easier duties and that knowledge and information was critical to the their development and the future development of NEVLEC and the community.
He also said that it was critical that the various departments within NEVLEC work together to ensure that the utility was a reliable one.
"The utility NEVLEC, our electricity generating company owned through the government by the people of this country, can only be as good as the persons who run and manage it. It means then that each one of us must seek to be as efficient and knowledgeable as possible in what we are doing.
"I am saying in your own little corner, be as efficient as you can and if each one is 100 percent efficient it means that the utility will be 100 percent efficient, whether its at generation, distribution, maintenance, customer services or finance at management of supplies, all of those things go together hand in glove. I want you to look at yourselves that everything you do in your technical and non technical function is fundamentally critical to the reliability of your utility," Mr Amory said.
The Minister also thanked NEVLEC's general manager Doctor Fredrick Isaac who facilitated the workshop for his willingness to impart his knowledge to his staff.
The workshop covered areas including how electricity is transmitted and the various associated components such as the distribution of electricity. The participants were also exposed to other areas which related to customer service and how to calculate energy consumption.
Dr Isaac had facilitated the same course for electricity workers in Barbados and Grenada for the Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) an association of electric utilities based in St Lucia.
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