jrobinson, Author at SolarBuzz Jamaica

JPS, fix the broken pole, Windward Road residents plea

October 26, 2012 jrobinson

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Residents along Windward Road today renewed pleas for the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) to fix a broken utility pole in the area

The residents said that while they are aware the JPS continues work to remove downed utility poles across the island, they feel the broken pole is in need of urgent attention.

They fear the wires may be energised, posing serious threat to passersby.

“The pole is hanging over the roadway and we fear it may fall at any time and damage a member of the public,” resident Foster Dawkins

Oil price falls as Sandy nears US

October 26, 2012 jrobinson

NEW YORK, USA (AP) – The price of oil is down slightly as the market eyes a massive storm heading for the US East Coast with the potential to force refinery closures and delays in import deliveries.

Benchmark oil fell 9 cents to US$85.96 per barrel Friday.

JPS News

JPS promises timely restoration of electricity

October 26, 2012 jrobinson

The country

News Oil

Petrojam to slash some gas prices

October 26, 2012 jrobinson

Petrojam, the state owned oil refinery, has announced that it will cut the prices of some products, effective Friday.

The price of E10-87 and E10-90 gasoline will go down by J$2.45 while that for diesel will be reduced by $2.30.

The price cut for kerosene oil will be $1.59.

Propane cooking gas however rises by 51 cents while $1.04 has been added to the price of butane gasoline.

DARK WEEKEND

October 26, 2012 jrobinson

Residents of the Lawrence Tavern community walk by downed power lines adjacent to the police station in the town square. Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Rural parishes will have to wait for power

RESIDENTS OF several rural parishes may have to endure a long, dark weekend.

Winsome Callum, head of corporate communication at the light and power company, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), said this was as a result of damage to “critical elements of the transmission system” in rural areas resulting from the passage of Hurricane Sandy.

“Right now, the parishes that are likely to take several days, into the weekend possibly, are St Ann, St Mary, St Thomas and Portland,” Callum said.

She told

JPS News

LETTER OF THE DAY – JPS Does Not Seem To Care

October 26, 2012 jrobinson

A JPS technician at work. – File

THE EDITOR, Sir:

WE ARE customers of the Jamaica Public Service Company. However, for over two weeks we have seen the service disconnected for up to 12 hours each day. The light is cut off from as early as 7:40 a.m. and does not return until minutes to eight in the nights.

We called after noticing this daily occurrence for a week and a half and were informed that the light is being disconnected because persons in the area are not paying their bills. When we asked for suggestions on coping with this situation, one customer service representative told us ‘to move’ while supervisor said ‘we should tell our neighbours to pay their bills’.

We reside in Windsor Heights, Central Village, St Catherine, and do not see why paying customers should be inconvenienced like this each day because JPS has failed to collect monies owing to them and want for us to do their compliance work. I think the customer service staff are rude and very inconsiderate.

We are now left with our food and medication that require refrigeration going bad and electrical appliances being damaged as a result of these daily outages. We are being seriously inconvenienced and JPS does not seem to care. They have not offered an end date to this and I am guessing that, based on the community in which we live, we will see this issue persist with no urgency to having the matter resolved.

suffering

I wish we could do as JPS customer service representative Antoinette suggested and move, possibly to Beverly Hills or Cherry Gardens, but, unfortunately, not all of us can reside in these areas.

I hope this letter will push JPS to realise that they do have customers here who need the service that they provide and that we have been paying for this service for years and we should not be made to continue suffering like this.

Lisa

Why Is There No Better JPS Service?

October 26, 2012 jrobinson

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Another hurricane hits Jamaica, another near-islandwide blackout. I completely understand the lights going out with all the wind and rain. But, for the love of me, I can’t understand why so much of the island should go dark after a

Ads News

JPS Consumers Not Necessarily Customers

October 23, 2012 jrobinson

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I read the article (Census highlights power gap,

Alternative Energy Government JPS LNG News

LETTER OF THE DAY – Some Thoughts On Energy

October 23, 2012 jrobinson

Paulwell

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I wish to congratulate Claude Clarke on his recent article headlined ‘Could Paulwell’s plan light the path to recovery?’

This is the best article written to date in connection with our cost of energy problem. I doubt if electricity rates can be reduced to 15 US cents per kilowatt-hour in the near future but do know that the current design engines working on heavy fuel oil (HFO), if installed, would be 35 per cent cheaper to generate electricity than what is currently being generated at Hunts Bay or Old Harbour Bay stations. Even if LNG is not immediately available it would be a start to the reduction of rates.

The modern day engines are dual fuel and can be shipped within 12 months. They can operate on HFO and be switched to LNG (without extra cost) whenever it comes.

The modern dual fuel engines operating on HFO carry a heat rate of under 8,000. The JPS plants at Hunts Bay and Old Harbour Bay go as high as 12,200. If energy fuel were liberalised two years ago we would now have been able to sell it at a lower cost to the consumer.

Welcome news

I believe that the statement made in Parliament recently by Phillip Paulwell is welcome news for the energy sector and he should be congratulated. Now that the announcement has been made, how do we proceed?

I do not believe that breaking the monopoly on transmission and distribution should be a priority but more effort should be put towards reducing the base load cost as quickly as possible.

D

New Project Bottles Hydrogen As Cooking Gas

October 22, 2012 jrobinson

Professor Errol Morrison (left), president of UTECH, grabs the attention of Phillip Paulwell, minister of science, technology, energy and mining, while attending the launch of ACP/EU grant funded Solar-Hydrogen Research Project which was held at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston on Thursday, October 18. – Ian Allen/Photographer

The University of Technology Jamaica (UTech) is leading an ambitious project that harnesses energy from water and sunlight to slash the US$30-million (J$2.7b) import bill for cooking gas.

It’s the largest project of its kind in Jamaica worth