Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 09, 2018 (SKNIS): While appearing on the Government’s Weekly Programme, “Working For You,” on November 07, Public Relations Officer at the St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC), Gawain Fraites, said that the company will be launching its “Power-up” initiative to offer a pay-as-you-go service in 2019 as a way to promote energy efficiency in households.

Mr. Fraites explained that this new project will offer a top-up feature for the electricity metres where persons can load money on to their metres instead of having the traditional post-paid service where they would receive a bill at the end of the month.  

“What we’ve seen from others who have had the ‘top-up’ services is that, due to the fact that you are now paying for the service beforehand, persons have become more energy efficient,” he said

He added that the service will be highly accessible to the public.  This is because persons will be able to add credit to their metres through the SKELEC App, phone service providers and at the SKELEC office.

Mr. Fraites said that persons will be able to get real time information on their account for their usage. He further stated that the app will also notify persons when their credit runs low, in order to prompt them to add credit to their account so that their electricity service can continue.

“We are encouraging persons who have rental units to sign up for the service. It will work well for them because there is no deposit. Once you sign up for the Power-up prepaid, you don’t have to pay a deposit,” said Mr. Fraites, adding that if persons switch over from post-paid to prepaid, they will receive their deposit back in credit.

He said that in the following months, the company will be sending out information to the public on the new service so that they can be educated about the system before it comes on-stream. He also issued an invitation to interested persons to sign up for the pilot programme that will be running through December 31.