CARILEC Rebrands Learning Platform and Merges Upcoming Conferences to Increase Capacity Building Among Members

Castries, Saint Lucia, June 22nd, 2022The Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) announces its new learning and development platform: CARILEC Resilient Energy Community (CAREC).  This platform was previously titled the CARILEC Renewable Energy Community but has been renamed and rebranded to accommodate a broader range of networking, knowledge sharing, and engagement among CARILEC’s members, regional energy professionals, regulators, and policy makers.

In antecedence to this rebranding, CARILEC through consultation with its members, notes that critical topics such as power grid resilience, and social and financial flexibility are becoming increasingly imperative when planning and implementing energy transition initiatives, towards a decarbonized power sector. Therefore, to meet the need for a more comprehensive approach towards building capacity for sustainable energy transition, CARILEC has embarked on the transformation of the CAREC platform, to an umbrella body for all its learning and development activities, related to building resilience for the Caribbean power sector.  CARILEC has received funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to implement this modification of the CAREC platform.

CAREC was initially created in 2016 and has since acquired over 1500 members.  The community facilitates collaboration and access to a network of regional and international energy experts and has since supported the identification of capacity building needs and the exchange of best practices in the Caribbean energy transition.  During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, CAREC’s members demonstrated a rising interest in topics not only related to RE expansion and increased EE, but also solutions for a more resilient power supply.  This inclination was further strengthened by the increasing occurrence of natural disasters and catastrophic weather events in the Caribbean.

Speaking on the recent rebranding and renaming of the platform, CAREC’s Strategic Planning Consultant, Mr. Martyn Forde, further elaborated on its proposed merits, “CAREC will serve as a tool in support of all utility workforce development activities offered by CARILEC.  The rebranding of CARILEC’s Renewable Energy Community to CARILEC’s Resilient Energy Community (CAREC), will prioritize capacity development based on three (3) key pillars of learning and development: organizational and leadership development, resilient infrastructure and disaster response, and energy transitioning.  The success of the CAREC model relies on driving coordination and the alignment of CARILEC’s members and partners towards a more resilient energy sector.  This goal is of paramount importance to the Association.”

CARILEC has also merged its Engineering and Procurement Conference and Renewable Energy (RE) and Smart Grid Conference into the 2022 CAREC Conference and Exhibition.  The Association has recognised the increasing cost of fuel globally and consequently, travel costs have also risen.  In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, with some regions recording an increase in cases. Given these challenging circumstances and the fact there is a significant overlap in attendees for both conferences, CARILEC has thought it prudent to facilitate this merger to reduce travel and accommodation costs and the associated exposure to the COVID-19 virus.  CARILEC’s utmost priority is the well-being and comfort of its members and overall attendees.  The 2022 CAREC Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Miami, in Downtown Miami, USA, from September 25th to 29th.

The 2022 CAREC Conference and Exhibition will be the first major event to signal the rebranding of the CAREC platform, as this event will particularly focus on learning and development through educational and insightful conference sessions on power grid resilience, RE expansion, alternative energy services, and e-mobility.  It is envisaged that a critical examination of these topics will tremendously assist Caribbean electric utilities in their thrust to reduce fossil-fuel generation and carbon emissions, thereby bringing the region closer to a more affordable and reliable electricity supply in a sustainable future.

The conference explores how to drive value, overcome challenges, and increase business capabilities by sharing best-practices, lessons learnt, expertise, and resources.  It will also feature post-training sessions and a regulatory roundtable on September 29th.  This event is usually attended by engineering personnel, technical specialists, purchasing and procurement managers, CAREC members, RE experts, sustainable energy experts, funding organizations, and leaders of regional and international energy and electricity affiliated organizations.  CARILEC will soon announce its highly anticipated speaker line-up and sponsors for the 2022 CAREC Conference and Exhibition.

For more information on CAREC, visit https://community.carilec.org/login.

For more information on the 2022 CAREC Conference and Exhibition, visit https://www.carilec.org/event/carec22/.

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For further information, contact:

Karen C. Piper

Assistant Manager, Communications & Disaster Management

Mobile Phone : +1 (758) 728 9212

Email : [email protected]

About CARILEC :

The Caribbean Electric Utility Service Corporation (CARILEC) is an association of energy solution providers and other stakeholders operating in the electricity industry in the Caribbean. CARILEC was established in 1989 with nine (9) members as part of an electric Utilities modernization project funded by USAID and implemented by NRECA under a five-year “Co-operative Agreement.” Currently, CARILEC comprises over one hundred members. This includes thirty-three (33) Full Members that are electric Utilities, and over eighty (80) Independent Power Producers (IPPs), Associate and Affiliate Members that are companies involved in some aspect of servicing the electric Utility business.

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