The proposed waste-to-energy project slated for St. John is currently at a standstill, with the principals of Advanced Sustainable Technology still awaiting any communication from the Waste Management Authority after months of silence.
During the Public Services Commission meeting on Tuesday, PSC counsel Boyd Sphren disclosed that “we have been trying for about the last three months to get a meeting with Waste Management to discuss this,” to no avail. Where the matter has been stalled is “reaching any sort of agreement with Waste Management on steps to move forward,” he said. The last meeting between the parties was back in March, when officials from AST-Cleantech made a site visit to the Bovoni landfill.
The project also depends on having a power purchase agreement between AST and the territory’s Water and Power Authority, however commissioners learned that a draft agreement had already been submitted and agreed to in principle, with the only item left to settle being the exact rate at which WAPA would be purchasing energy from the waste-to-energy plant. “WAPA has indicated they have no problem with accepting the amount of power that would be produced by the proposed facility on St. John,” said Mr. Sprehn. With the PSC responsible for setting that price, “it seems like we will be able to cause some progress with WAPA,” Commissioner David Hughes noted.
With the WMA seemingly the lone stumbling block in advancing the project, which already has sufficient financing in place, Mr. Hughes wondered “what the objections of Waste Management to this project there could possibly be.”
There is no objection, said WMA Chief Financial Officer Darryl Griffith. He explained that at least two scheduled meetings had to be postponed for various reasons, one of them being the recent weather-related closure of government offices. However, he disclosed that during his time as interim head of the agency, “three other companies have presented similar ideas to us.” With new management on board, Mr. Smalls said that the prudent thing to do now would be to “sit down with them and then bring all this to our new executive director and see how we can equitably present what we have to all the entities and make a fair decision.” That would likely entail “some type of procurement,” he said.
Mr. Hughes disagreed. “There’s only one company with a QF designation. We’ve already passed the point at which we were debating whether or not you’re going to talk to this entity. These projects are not mutually exclusive,” he argued. With no other solutions being proposed for St. John, “I don’t understand the reluctance of the Waste Management Authority to act in good faith in this discussion.…We’re going on years with this now,” Mr. Hughes noted.
Mr. Griffith protested that the WMA had no issue with the project, but Mr. Hughes pointed out that the inability to schedule and hold two meetings over the course of six months “seems to be a problem on the part of the Waste Management Authority.”
At a June 2024 meeting, AST Group CEO Dan Levin told the PSC that while reaching an agreement with the WMA should be simpler since no tipping fees were involved, the process remained unfinished. “If you can help move this forward, we’d greatly appreciate it,” he appealed to commissioners.
On Tuesday, PSC chair Pedro Williams asked that the WMA supply three potential meeting dates to the AST representative, right then and there. Asked to be able to confer with Mike Ware, the newly installed agency head first, Mr. Williams declined. “It’s not okay, I want you to give the company three days now that’s available. This has been dragging on long enough. Mr. Ware will make himself available to speak to them,” he insisted.
With the three dates in October duly provided by WMA and accepted by AST, Mr. Williams then left it up to the two entities to ensure that the required meeting take place. Mr. Hughes thought it prudent to also have a PSC official attend the meeting. “We’ve been looking at Waste Management for years,” he said. Having a presence at this crucial meeting would be “right in the crosshairs of regulating the Authority.”
British Caribbean News
