St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) will be introducing prepaid electricity to its customers come August, Equity, Social Justice, and Empowerment Minister Joachim Henry confirmed this week.
Saint Lucia will be following in the footsteps of Dominica and Jamaica, however, the island will only be testing out the prepaid method, Henry indicated.
Government, in 2022, said the Ministry of Equity was in discussion with the island’s lone electricity provider to make the vital utility available to consumers on a prepaid basis.
“It makes a lot more sense. There are some persons who would be better off if they have an electrical connection through the prepaid approach,” Henry told reporters at a press briefing on Monday, noting that more information will be provided in the future.
With the prepaid option, individuals will be able to ‘top up’ their electricity, Henry said, adding that “you could see it on your phone and you could manage your electricity.”
With electricity being among the costliest of utilities (government said in a 2022 statement), “Henry said thousands of less fortunate households are forced to grapple with high electricity bills on a monthly basis.”
To help address this problem, Henry said Dominica may be worth emulating.
According to the statement, research from Dominica revealed that customers who subscribe to electricity on a prepaid basis had “better overall management of their consumption patterns, leading to significantly lower disconnection rates.”
Henry, at the time, also announced that FLOW was considering the idea of introducing solar powered modems for the most marginalized households in Saint Lucia.
At Monday’s press briefing Henry said the prepaid initiative was “born out of caring”.
“Looking at the high incidents of people being disconnected because they cannot afford that modality, I’m happy to say that we asked for it.
“If you have never experienced it, it is something to try,” Henry told reporters, adding that “it will help transform the experience of consuming electricity.”
Noting the strides Dominica has made with prepaid electricity over the years, Henry said “it has grown to about over 15,000 persons and ordinary business people are subscribing because they find it’s a lot easier.
“As persons become aware (in Saint Lucia) and pay attention to their ‘wallet’ showing the balance on their prepaid electricity or when they realize that they could go into any supermarket and buy a ‘top up’, persons may then subscribe,” the minister said.
“That will create a demand for the service. Just like persons have postpaid telephone bills and prepaid I think similarly it would become the norm,” he surmised.
Henry said he hopes the Water and Sewerage Company can follow suit.
“I hope we get to the day where we can prepay our water bill and monitor what we’re consuming so we can manage better,” he said.
Whilst Henry is looking forward to the prepaid method being rolled out, many individuals have taken to social media to oppose it.
One individual even requested Saint Lucians “come together and rebel against this.”