The instability of the power supply on our island is a cause for concern. This concern is also reaching the boardroom of the Chamber of Commerce (KvK). Martijn Balkestein, director of the KvK, began to say that they too are suffering from the instability in the distribution of electricity on our island.
The fact that electricity goes out so regularly certainly causes alarm among several merchants, who want a plan to solve this. One cardinal point is that it must be realized that Aruba’s economy is based on service, meaning a ‘service-oriented economy.’ The moment electricity goes out frequently, the service is delayed. And when tourists are confronted with power outages every time, it may make them reluctant to return or dissatisfied.
Furthermore, Balkestein continued to say that, in addition to the damage to our reputation, it must be realized that businesses cannot produce, cybersecurity must be considered, as well as the people who depend on electricity for their health, etc. It can be understood that when the country is in development, still growing, electricity can go out occasionally. What is more alarming is that there is no plan to prevent this in the future.
In the future, there will be more hotel rooms coming online, not only needing electricity for air conditioning, etc., but also having a multiplier effect with all the companies around them. Everyone knows that Aruba does not have enough people to cover all job positions, which means that alternative forms must be considered, possibly requiring controlled immigration. This means that Aruba will continue to grow.
WEB and ELMAR
Regarding electricity production, WEB basically produces electricity and Elmar distributes it. But the communication between these two companies is not always optimal. This can lead to WEB not producing enough and Elmar not being able to distribute the necessary electricity. Additionally, WEB also has production problems.
Balkestein said that in the past, there were different systems that worked, but this is no longer the case today. There were times, for example, when the wind would die down, and then the energy generated by the wind turbines would be lost. The Chamber of Commerce is very concerned because they don’t hear from the directors of WEB and Elmar about what the plan is to prevent this from continuing to happen.
This has prompted the Chamber of Commerce to want to have a meeting with the director of Elmar, as well as with WEB, to see their plans for the future to ensure that the production and distribution of electricity will be optimal.
