Energy stakeholders focus on the Bahamas

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Jerry C. Butler, the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum’s founding chairman, met with regional energy stakeholders in Washington DC last week to discuss the challenges and opportunities for grid and off-grid investments in the Bahamas and wider Caribbean.

Mr Butler is pictured with CREF sponsors: Mark Lambrides, OAS energy and climate change chief; Christian Gischler, IDB senior energy specialist; Dr Kyeong Kim, director, Korea Institute of Energy Planning; Marco de la Rosa, chief executive of AES Dominicana; and Pablo Portes, chief executive of CBG Energy.

Mr Butler discussed the Government’s Request for Proposal (RFP) for Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) restructuring, and opportunities to source cheaper liquid and gas feedstock to reduce base load costs to Bahamians.

He also focused on opportunities to bring Korean research and production capacity in energy storage and renewables to attract a facility to Freeport, Bahamas.

The next CREF event will be hosted in the Dominican Republic in December 2013. This event, sponsored by the World Bank, the IDB, and the Caribbean Hotels Association, will focus on bringing solutions to the energy challenges facing the hotel sector in the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The recent $5 million grant to CHENACT for hotel energy audits in the Bahamas will be discussed, along with action plans for solutions.

Like CREF, previously held in Aruba with 450 hotel rooms sold, the hotel rooms blocked for this Dominican Republic event are already sold out. For further details, please contact Jerry Butler by email at Jerasia1@gmail.com.

The_Oracle 10 years, 5 months ago

Is there a Bahamian among that lot? Is Jerry Butler a Bahamian? Is any one of them a stake holder in the Bahamas? Is there a hope in hell of an energy policy in the Bahamas that will enable Citizens and business owners to help themselves? Can someone explain why the hell they are discussing this in D.C.?

diva 10 years, 5 months ago

Yes, Jerry Butler is a Bahamian Jerry Butler Jerry Christopher Butler is a board member of LAC-CORE. He was previously based in Washington DC on the Boards of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Inter-American Investment Corp. and the Multilateral Investment Fund serving as the Caribbean Director and Chairman of the Audit and Ethics Committees of the Boards.

He is the founding Chairman of CREF, the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum, the largest annual forum of government officials, utilities, technology providers, entrepreneurs and financiers in the Caribbean. His strategic advisory services are widely consulted on energy projects in generation, transmission, distribution, and energy efficiency. With more than twenty-five years of both public accounting and private financial services experience, he previously served in the Financial Services Practice Group of Price Waterhouse in New York; was the Chief Accountant of the Bahamas National Insurance Board; the Financial Controller at the Bahamas Development Bank; the Vice President of Finance at Citibank, and later, the British American and Fidelity Banks; and Consultant in the Office of the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of The Bahamas. He is a licensed Chartered Accountant in the Bahamas (BICA), and in New York State at the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).

His education includes an MBA in International Business (Summa Cum Laude Honors and Class Valedictorian) – University of Miami, and Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Computer Information Systems (Magna Cum Laude Honors) – Manhattan College, New York City, and was also a student of the University of the West Indies LLB Law program. He is the Bahamas 1981 Most Distinguished Junior Achiever Scholar of the St. Augustine High School. He has served as a Bahamas Securities Commissioner, a lecturer at the Bahamas Institute of Bankers, a BICA Representative on the FTAA Financial Service Team, a Treasurer of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement, and a President of the Rotary Club of Nassau.

The Tribune