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Industries lament carrying bulk of country’s power bill |30 July 2018

 

 

Seychelles has one of the highest electricity tariffs in the world which are nevertheless subsidised for ordinary consumers as the bulk of power production costs are transferred to the commercial sector.

The high charges in return however become a substantial contributor to the high cost of manufacturing or productive entities, tourism and service industries as well as retail activities in Seychelles, “becoming a contributing factor to the cost of doing business which has a direct impact on the cost of living”.

The sector’s views were expressed on Friday by the president of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry Oliver Bastienne at a Savoy Resort workshop where 30 company executives and engineers witnessed the launch of a European Union-funded pilot project aimed at helping businesses cut their high expenses on refrigeration and air conditioning.

Mr Bastienne said they welcomed the drive, adding that energy savings would boost their production and capacity to hire more workers, adding that “saving energy will not only be good for the planet through conservation but also good for our businesses”.

He told Seychelles NATION the drive is an excellent public-private sector partnership.

“Today is the start of a wonderful partnership between the private sector and the Seychelles Energy Commission (Sec). Let us formulate a dynamic dialogue group of technical experts and enterprises alongside policy makers to map out energy policy moving forward,” he said.

“Why should we keep formulating the same model that we have been using for decades? As our president has said, let us remove these outdated policies.

“We want to work with you so that we can save money, create jobs and increase productivity but we cannot do so with the current high cost of our electricity bills. We need your help, fast and desperately.”

Sec has joined hands with Business Mauritius under Indian Ocean Commission Energies Programme to work towards helping industries save energy with the hope of mimicking Mauritius whose similar initiative has seen the commercial sector reduce their power bills by an average of 30%.

Mamy Razanajatovo of Sec said Seychelles is the second Indian Ocean island nation to launch such an initiative after Mauritius, noting that Madagascar and Comoros are in the more initial planning stages for similar projects.

He said the project targets companies or institutions which use large refrigeration and/or air-conditioning systems including those in the fisheries and meat processing sectors, large hotels and supermarkets.

“Experienced experts will be hired to do specialised energy audits of the systems, make recommendations on specific measures for energy savings, and train technical staff,” he said.

He added the number of companies to be selected will be limited due to the high cost involved and they will only be required to cover only the cost of training.

Raj Makoond of Business Mauritius told the workshop’s  delegates how his country first studied power conservation efforts in Reunion and launched a public awareness campaign back home, adding that generating electricity from renewable sources should go in tandem with power saving.

 

 

 

 

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