“Outdated infrastructure must urgently be replaced”

The necessary expansion projects that the Energy Company Suriname (EBS) must carry out will reportedly cost millions of US dollars. EBS Director Rabin Parmessar explained that this is the reason why the EBS needs a $65 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and a $170 million loan from the Islamic Development Bank.

Parmessar told reporters on Friday that the company has been facing huge challenges for the past couple of years because of its outdated infrastructure which must urgently be replaced and expanded. “At some locations the installations in the substations date back to the sixties. They no longer meet the minimum technical demands due to the growing demand for electricity which increases with about 6% on an annual basis. Another problem is that some lines no longer meet the minimum requirements due to their length and the extreme ‘pressure’. The plans to invest in expansion projects have been on the table for many years but were postponed or carried out partially due to the lack of funds. The EBS wants to change that and has already taken the first step by signing a $ 65 million loan agreement with the Surinamese government and the CDB. Suriname will invest $ 32 million from its own pocket. The money will be used to finance several upgrades of the network and in particular the EPAR-West network. The EPAR network is the company’s biggest independent network that provides electricity to the districts Paramaribo, Commewijne, Para, Saramacca and Wanica.