SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED… A DONE DEAL By John Denny (Stoney Grove, Nevis) – It was an historic moment at the Netball Complex last Tuesday afternoon when cabinet members of the Nevis Island Administration, management of Nevis Electric Company and the CEO of West Indies Power in an atmosphere of celebration, signed the long waited power purchase agreement. Some of the details of who is going to make how much money were laid out by the NIA legal advisor the Hon. Patrice Nisbett. * Ten percent of the shares of West Indies Power (Nevis) will be owned by the NIA and there is an option for the government to purchase another 10 percent later, which they plan to do *The sale of power to St. Kitts is to be considered domestic sales and the NIA will receive a five percent royalty on all domestic power sales. *Nevlec will broker all domestic power sales. WIP will directly wholesale all export power. *The NIA will earn 7.5 percent royalty on all export power. *WIP has the concession of a 25-year tax holiday. * A development fund of five percent of gross sales to be paid for by WIP will be set aside for special projects such as education and sports. Also signed during the event was the Geothermal Resources Contract which grants WIP permits, licenses and concessions for exploration, drilling and steam production at the Nevis1 site in Spring Hill and the Nevis 2 site in upper Jessup’s for the next two years. The Hamilton site, Nevis 3 was not included in any of the contract agreements. The legalities of developing that site will be dealt with years from now when the first two sites have been exploited. As part of the agreement, WIP has to start producing electricity by the end of 2010 or the contract has to be renegotiated. WIP has to post a performance bond of US$125,000 to the NIA to ensure the reclamation of the resource area once the power plants are constructed and to insure against future damages. An additional performance bond of US$20,000 will be paid by WIP for each production well drilled on the island.
