(Coteaux, HAITI) — On Sunday, Feb. 9, the Coopérative Electrique de l’Arrondissement des Côteaux (CEAC) convened 372 members for the co-op’s inaugural general meeting. At the meeting, the members approved a constitution and by-laws and elected a Board of Directors and Monitoring Committee. The project to create a not-for-profit, member-owned cooperative in rural Haiti is administered by NRECA International with $2.18 million in funds from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), provided by the government of Norway, and $530,000 from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The new cooperative is seeking to provide member-owners in Roche-á-Bateau, Côteaux and Port-á-Piment on the southern coast of Haiti with affordable, reliable power. Haiti’s Minister of Energy Security, representatives from the Conseil National des Cooperatives (CNC) and local officials also attended the meeting.
The co-ops will interconnect the towns of Roche-à-Bateau, Coteaux, Damassin and Port-à- Piment, erecting or upgrading 28 km of LV lines and 26 km of MV lines. NRECA International is assisting the installation of a solar-diesel hybrid system with two 200 kW diesel generators and over 100kW from solar with partner organization SELF (Solar Electric Light Fund).
The co-op currently has 580 members and funds sufficient to provide service to 1600 consumers. The design has been completed; procurement and delivery of materials to the island is underway. The cooperative is currently pursuing registration with the Conseil National des Cooperatives (CNC).
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national service organization that represents the nation’s more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide service to 42 million people in 47 states.
NRECA International projects and programs have created more than 250 successful rural electric enterprises in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Yemen. The rural electric cooperatives that NRECA has formed and supported now serve more than 110 million rural beneficiaries in more than 40 countries.
