BVIEC stands by comment that no local companies bid on Anegada project

General Manager of the BVI Electricity Corporation (BVIEC) Leroy Abraham is standing firmly by his recent comment that no local company submitted a bid for the Anegada Renewable Energy & Battery Storage System Project.

This comes after the owner of Creque’s Engineering Services (CES), Henry Creque said Abraham’s July 17 comment was a ‘misrepresentation of the facts’ since local firms CES along with aTec BVI and BMR Energy Ltd teamed up to submit a bid under US company, Advanced Solar Products’ name.

In response to Creque’s claims, Abraham told BVI News: “I was asked [by a reporter at the time]: ‘From what was said, it seemed as though you didn’t have any local companies submitting proposals. Am I correct in saying that?'”

“I stand by my answer which is confirmed by the [BVIEC] Chairman’s remarks and your article following, that no local company submitted a bid,” Abraham added.

BVIEC listed 5 bidders

In a March media release from the BVIEC, it stated five companies had submitted bids for the Anegada project. The five companies listed included Advanced Solar Products, MAN-HEG, Power52, Tugliq, and Virtual Engineers.

Of that list, only one of the bidders was made up of a group of partnered firms.

As it related to companies who intended to partner to bid on the project, Abraham accepted that the BVIEC had expressed that only one company from among a group of partnered firms was to submit a bid.

He said: “BVIEC during the RFP (Request for Proposal) process, stated in response to a query posed by another bidder that, ‘BVIEC needs one single point of contact for contract. If they want to engage with other parties, that is their decision but [the] contract will be with one entity’.”

“At the end of the day, Advanced Solar Products Inc submitted the bid and Advanced Solar Products Inc based in Flemington NJ (New Jersey) are the ones who paid the bid fee,” Abraham argued

Local company names on submitted document

In a subsequent interview with our news centre, Creque explained that while the bid was submitted under Advanced Solar Products, the documents provided contained the names of the other partnered companies, which all contributed to the bid fees.

“For whatever reason, BVIEC said on your bid itself there should be one company listed on your submission because they don’t want to have four points of contac — only one point of contact. So our bid went in under the covering of Advanced Solar Products.

“But in the submission, in the cover letter and in the proposal, it was made abundantly clear who was on our team [and] that it was a composition of these four companies,” he added.

Creque, who is also a former Deputy General Manager of the BVIEC, further said that Advanced Solar Products was selected from the partnered companies because of its more than 20 years of experience in the renewable energy sector.

According to the information provided by the BVIEC, Advanced Solar Products had submitted a bid valued $4,751,061.00.

In the end, the project was awarded to another US-based solar energy company, Power52 for a total of $4,687,944.72.