BASSETERRE, St. Kitts: St. Kitts and Nevis is the venue for the 2005 Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) Engineers Conference and Supply Chain Seminar which opens here on Monday. The Conference, co-hosted by the St. Kitts Electricity Department and the Nevis Electricity Company Ltd., is being held at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal Beach Casino under the theme: “Leveraging Technologies to Create Value.” Conference Coordinator, Mr. Lawrence Benjamin said 150 delegates are to attend the July 25th to 27th Conference. He said the keynote address will be delivered by St. Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Public Works, Utilities, Transport and Posts, Dr. Earl Asim Martin during the Opening Ceremony, which will include remarks by Manager/Engineer of the St. Kitts Electricity Department, Mr. John Channer; Manager of ABB, Bruce Beauman and CARILEC Executive Director, Mr. Victor Poyotte. Mr. Lawrence will deliver the Vote of Thanks. During the sessions, Engineer at the St. Kitts Needsmust Power Station, Mr. Bertil Browne will give an “Overview of the Transmission and Distribution System in St. Kitts” and Manager of the Nevis Electricity Company, Dr. Fred Isaac, will deliver a paper on “Value-based Distribution Reliability Planning.” Mr. Lawrence told the Communications Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister that delegates will discuss “Successful Metering Automation,” “Marine fuel legislation and the impact on Caribbean utilities,” “Fuel Management in rising energy costs,” “How fixed networks can meet meter reading needs and beyond,” “Solar water heater – a profit centre for utilities” and “Integration of oil test results and economic scheduling.” He said delegates will take time off away from the conference centre to visit the Needsmust Power Plant on St. Kitts and the facility in Nevis. Other topics for discussion also include “Options for mitigating the impact of fuel price increase,” “Online Professional Development,” “Improving Island Management with Better Asset Management,” “Improving existing diesel power plant efficiency,” “How Geographic Information Systems (GIS) influenced the recovery efforts after Hurricane Ivan in Grenada” and “Transformer Asset Management.” CARILEC – an Association of Electric Utilities – has a membership of 30 full members of Electricity Departments and Companies from the English, French and Dutch-speaking Caribbean and 37 Associate Members. The St. Lucia-based CARILEC Secretariat strives to enhance communication among its members and to serves as the focal point for general and technical information. The Secretariat takes the lead in advocating for change in the electric utility industry in the Caribbean and in this regard produces a number of information products and provides a range of services. It delivers a programme of high-quality training to upgrade the skills of member utility and electricity industry personnel in the areas of engineering, technical, administration and management; organises the annual or occasional regional conferences which allows for interaction among electricity stakeholders and utility professionals operating in the fields of Public Relations & Corporate Communications, Executive Management, Engineers & Purchasing, Information Systems, Finance, Customer Service, Human Resource and Renewable Energy and routinely collects information about a wide range of industry activities, maintains databases and disseminates information to members through regular electronic mail, general publications, a website and telecommunication. The CARILEC Hurricane Assistance Plan assists members in disaster planning and hurricane restoration activities and gave assistance to the Federation in the aftermath of Hurricanes Georges and Lenny. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com