FortisTCI president and CEO Eddinton Powell has been named the 2019 recipient of the third annual Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum (CREF) Energy Leadership MVP award.
The honour is given for making a significant contribution to energy development in the region. With almost 40 years of utility industry experience and 12 years as president and CEO of FortisTCI, he is credited with leading the transformation of the electricity sector in the Turk and Caicos Islands.
Powell, a Caymanian, worked for Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) for 25 years, eventually serving as the company’s senior vice president and chief financial officer. He is a member of CUC’s board of directors.
He has led FortisTCI to integrate and enable the renewable energy transition through the establishment of distributed generation solar programmes for customers, which received the 2018 CREF award for Best Distributed Generation Project. He and his team have also worked alongside the TCI government and the Rocky Mountain Institute to finalise a national energy plan – the Resilient National Energy Transition Strategy – which will serve as the country’s blueprint for the next 22 years.
“This CREF Award means a great deal to me and the company and to the people that I represent and work with – I really believe that CREF is doing a great job at promoting renewable energy,” Powell said.
CREF programme director Julie Taylor announced the award, on behalf of the CREF advisory committee, on Thursday,17 Oct., at the 11th annual CREF Conference in Miami, Florida.
CREF is the largest annual industry conference for the Caribbean, focussing on advancing the clean energy market for a clean energy future.
“These conferences have evolved in such a way that it helps us to know where we are and what we need to do to integrate more renewable energy in the Caribbean,” Powell said. “We aren’t here to just speak and listen, but we go back home and implement projects that benefit our customers and countries.”
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