BLPC, CARILEC to co-host key Leadership Conference

THE Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BLPC) is preparing to host a major conference for players in the Caribbean electricity services industry, later this month.

The Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC), in collaboration with the BLPC, will co-host the 2018 Chief Executive Officers & Leadership Conference on May 20 to 23, at the Hilton Barbados Resort, under the theme, “Leadership in an Age of Disruption-Managing the 3D’s: Digitalisation, Decarbonisation, Decentralisation”.

The CARILEC CEOs and Leadership Conference is the region’s leading utility and energy conference and is specifically designed to meet the dynamic and constantly evolving industry needs of CEOs and leaders.

The high-level conference will attract over one hundred and fifty Energy Leaders, and will feature Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, as the keynote speaker delivering his address via live streaming.

Speaking during a press conference at BLPC’s Bay Street, St Michael headquarters recently, Managing Director, Roger Blackman, said the company began working with CARILEC last year to plan the 2018 Conference programme, noting that he is especially pleased about the theme.

“This topic, especially in the context of the active hurricane season we all experienced in 2017, should help us to think differently, see our current circumstances within the context of what the future holds and to realise that the future is in fact much closer than we imagine, as we work together to strengthen our various businesses,” Blackman noted.

CARILEC’s Executive Director, Dr. Cletus Bertin, said the conference is important because it is an opportunity for players in the industry to network, and share best practices and knowledge in the region’s energy sector.

“We are expecting a really good turn out from the leadership across the region. We have some really interesting features this year, one being a round table where we bring together international NGOs, financiers, to meet with the utility leaders basically to talk about how we finance the transition to a cleaner, greener future, and how we overcome some of the challenges in terms of the utility business model and the transition that would be required. We have a really packed agenda,” Dr Bertin said.

A few key topics to be presented at the Conference are as follows: How Demand Response Can Keep Energy Costs Down and Customers Engaged; Pokigron Hybrid Energy Project, Disruption and Innovation, the Path to Resilience in the Energy Sector, Safety Leadership – What we as leaders often overlook; Corporate Resilience in the Caribbean’s Electricity Markets: Challenges and Prospects; The Power of Alignment through a Nationally Led Energy Transition Process; Recovery and Resilience in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma; Creating a Consumer Centric Utility; BLPC’s Digital Transformation Strategy and Lessons learned; The Utility Business & Home of the Future: What will the utility involvement behind the meter look like in 2030?; and The Digital Utility of the Future; Growth of the Renewable Energy Sector in Barbados: A story worth telling. (AH)