IMF Letter of Intent for Jamaica, April 2013
Renewable Energy exerpts extracted from:
Jamaica: Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding
April 17, 2013
The following item is a Letter of Intent of the government of Jamaica, which
describes the policies that Jamaica intends to implement in the context of its
request for financial support from the IMF.
GROWTH STRATEGY
11. The government is committed to implementing a growth strategy built on time
bound fiscal consolidation and structural reforms aimed at reducing impediments to
growth, complemented by strategic investment facilitation. Among the main impediments to
growth are high public debt (142 percent of GDP as of end 2011/12), low factor productivity and
competitiveness, high energy cost,…
Labour Market Interventions and Reform
15.
The Renewable Energy and Efficiency Technology Programme (in partnership with the
CARICOM Education for Employment Programme) to create a skilled workforce to design,
install and maintain Renewable Energy Systems (beginning January 2014).
Strategic Investments
17.
Implement energy sector initiatives to achieve fuel-source diversification, facilitate
energy conservation and promote liberalization in delivery to achieve progressive
reductions in the cost of energy. Accordingly, the government will:
? Diversify energy sources from oil to gas based and renewables.4
4
!!!!!!! The construction and commissioning by the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) of a 360 Megawatt
Combined Cycle plant by 2015 remains a centerpiece of the medium term energy sector strategy, as well as a
build out of renewable energy capacity.!!!!!!
With regard to the promotion of renewable energy, the JPS All Island
Electricity Licence was amended to, among other things, establish a 25MW ceiling (previously 15MW) for
renewable energy generation capacity to be installed and sold to the JPS grid without competitive tendering. In
addition, in November 2012 the Office of Utilities regulation (OUR) issued a Request for Proposals for the supply
of 115MW of electricity generation from Renewable Energy and the bid period was subsequently extended by
two months to June 2013.
Promote liberalization in delivery through continued efforts to facilitate distributed
generation networks.6
6
In 2011, the Government introduced Net Billing regulation, and in May 2012 issued licenses for the first eleven
participants in the Net Billing initiative. The Government, through the Energy Security and Efficiency
Enhancement Project has provided resources for a US$4.6 million line of credit through the Development Bank of
Jamaica for businesses to implement renewable energy and efficiency-enhancement projects. In addition,
The Development Bank of Jamaica has instituted a J$100 million fund for residential energy loans to finance
renewable energy solutions such as small wind turbines, solar panels or biogas ingesters, while the National
Housing Trust has introduced two loan facilities to facilitate the installation of Solar Water Heaters and Solar
Photovoltaic Panels.
Complete document:
http://jsea.org.jm/docs/IMF%
