A major plan has been unveiled aimed at reducing the Government’s massive electricity bill.
Under a 20 million US dollar project supported by the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, energy saving measures will be implemented at all Government Ministries, agencies and departments.
http://rjrnewsonline.com/business/plan-reduce-government%E2%80%99s-electricity-bill
Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Minister Phillip Paulwell has warned that government agencies and ministries that do not cut their energy bills will feel it in their pockets.
“With your current consumption as your benchmark, please be advised that starting today, your energy cost must only go down. If you increase consumption, … you can expect a negative impact on your overall budgetary allocation,” he said, quickly adding that he was speaking with the firm authority of the finance minister.
Paulwell was addressing the launch of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Programme, which is the end product of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Technical Assistance (EECTA) agreement first signed in 2009 between the Government and the Inter-American Development Bank. The programme has a total cost of US$20 million and seeks to reduce energy consumption in the public sector. Paulwell reeled off staggering figures of Jamaica’s energy crisis.
“Some 90 per cent of Jamaica’s energy is supplied by imported petroleum. Next to debt servicing, energy consumes the largest amount of our foreign-exchange earnings,” he said.
Among other data, the EECTA collected analysis of government facilities’ energy consumption and conservation measures. An audit of Jamaica’s energy situation showed the Government used more than 411 gigawatt hours annually, more than 10 per cent of total electricity consumed in Jamaica.
Significant increase
“The total GOJ bill for electricity has moved from about J$560 million in January 2009 to the current figure of nearly J$1.2 billion at February 2012. That’s an increase of more than half a billion dollars or some 108 per cent. This increase is annualised at J$7.2 billion. This … spells crisis,” he said.
He implored heads of agencies, ministries and other public-sector institutions to examine the findings of the audit report and to determine their next step. He noted the Government had access to the electricity bills of every government agency and would be monitoring usage. He challenged ministers and permanent secretaries, especially, to develop and implement an energy-efficiency road map and to set targets for their energy consumption.
“Each year, central government will issue an energy allocation, and just as there is pressure to stay within the Budget, we will apply pressure to have all of the ministries stay within the energy allocation.”
Improving efficiency
Paulwell noted that the programme would specifically deal with replacing incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lighting systems with LED fittings, and improving the insulation and seeding of building envelopes to reduce heat loading and air-conditioning requirements. There will also be the replacement of old air-conditioning systems for more modern, efficient ones.
“(We will also be) implementing a system for monitoring and evaluating to ensure the sustainability of the initiative and to identify and train, within all our ministries, teams of energy wardens … to oversee the gains of the programme and that the gains are achieved.”
Another component of the programme is an education-awareness initiative to sensitise the public and private sectors regarding energy efficiency (EE) and energy conservation (EC) cost and benefits. There will also be workshops and seminars for stakeholders on EE and EC procurement and management. Paulwell also noted that apart from the savings to the country’s energy bill, the programme would also provide jobs.
“This programme will employ energy auditors, engineers, architects, as well as suppliers of air conditioning and energy-efficient fixtures to install over 5,000 air-conditioning units islandwide and over 100,000 lighting fixtures. This is sure to have a ripple effect on the entire economy.”
NOMINEES of the Mogul in the Making start-up programme made their mark by winning two awards at Expo Jamaica.
Three nominees
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said Monday it had been selected by Canada as a key partner in its “fast-start” commitment to support climate-change mitigation and adaptation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Washington-based financial institution said Canada has committed CDN$250 million (US$253.1 million) to create the Canadian Climate Fund for the private sector in the Americas.
It will be managed by the IDB and finance private-sector climate-mitigation and adaptation projects requiring concessional financing to become viable.
“The private sector is a key player in helping countries address climate change. The Canadian Climate Fund will go a long way in moving the needle on innovation and helping reduce the gap in financing for climate-friendly projects,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.
“We thank the Canadian government for providing the resources to create this fund and are grateful for its decision to partner with the IDB,” he added.
Innovative initiatives
Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation, Beverley J. Oda, said fostering active private-sector participation, especially innovative initiatives that generate jobs, is “an important component of our efforts to make our international assistance more effective.
“Through this fund, the IDB will be helping to finance climate-related initiatives, helping to stimulate sustainable economic growth and deliver better results which will benefit Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole,” she said.
The IDB said the fund aims to mobilise private-sector investment in cleaner technologies, “which often have higher initial costs and longer paybacks than fossil fuel technology”.
“A key aspect of the Canada Climate Fund is its ability to level the playing field,” said Hans Schulz, IDB’s general manager at the Structured and Corporate Finance Department.
“Canada’s partnership offers us a tremendous opportunity to expand our support for climate-friendly projects in our member countries,” he added.
The IDB said projects supported may include renewable energy, energy efficiency, agriculture and forestry greenhouse-gas emission-reduction projects, as well as adaptation projects to reduce climate-change vulnerabilities.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120501/business/business1.html
The continued rise in the cost of oil on the international market has triggered increases in the cost of locally produced energy, which has had a negative
JAMAICA’S oil import bill hit US$2.4 billion in 2011, reflecting a 54 per cent increase over the previous year.
Last year
Combustion turbines or diesel engines?
Below is JPS’ Response to the article ‘Shock Treatment: Can JPS do more to reduce energy cost?’ by Dr Densil Williams (published in
On April 12 I wrote a column titled, ‘Is JPS likely to give us the full hundred’. In response, JPS head of Corporate Communications Winsome Callum had a piece published as a letter to the editor on April 15 titled, ‘Inaccurate Mr Wignall, here are the facts’.
Space will not allow me to respond to every sentence and paragraph of the JPS letter, but I will deal with the points which appear to be the most important, plus other salient matters that were not fully highlighted in the crosstalk.
|
The JPS plant at Old Harbour in St Catherine. |
As a target JPS is easy to beat up on simply because it is a monopoly. Almost every household in Jamaica has no other option but to purchase its expensive power and there doesn’t seem to be any sanctions in place if the company operates inefficiently.
One part of the JPS letter said, “Any balanced analysis of JPS’ operations will need to take into consideration the company’s continued investments in its operations. Each year, JPS spends an average of US$50 million to ensure that our power plants are operating as efficiently as possible, to improve system reliability, and to tackle the monster of electricity theft in order to create a more equitable playing field for our customers”.
It seems to me that outside of an independent audit of JPS, the entity most capable of providing a balanced analysis of JPS is JPS itself, but I would never expect JPS to make such an analysis public. The Corporate Communications arm of a large company like JPS is in the business of churning out treacle for public consumption. It is simply PR on steroids.
The first question is, what exactly has JPS done to increase the efficiency of its units, most of which are 30 years old and have reached their useable limit? Spending money on power plant efficiency and system reliability seems to me to be throwing good money after bad as, short of changing out these units, each spend is patent waste.
The company stated in its letter, “In the last five years, JPS invested US$280 million in operational improvements, while on the other hand recording US$115 million in cumulative profit.”
Great for JPS, the contractors involved and the workers, but where in all of this did the customers, the lifeblood of JPS, get a benefit? Where was the rate reduction?
The letter also said, “Mr Wignall’s article also incorrectly states that JPS does not suffer a penalty for inefficient operations. The fact is that the measures of efficiency, Heat Rate and System Losses, serve as significant sanctions for inefficiency. Heat Rate measures the efficiency with which oil is used in the generation process
Solar Buzz
Let’s get serious about reducing Jamaica’s dependency on oil. Photovoltaics (the use of solar panels to create electricity) is one way to go at this time but there are simple things we must and can do before we get there. Solar water heaters, LED bulbs and inverter refrigerators would have a positive effect on the national economy.
For instance, if 50,000 homes used 2000 watt electric heaters (about a 20 gallon system) for 90 minutes per day for 5 years, the electricity consumed in five years would be about 270-million kilowatts (approx. J$10 billion in electricity costs) and this would require about 370,000 barrels of oil (about J$3.3billion) to produce – or about one and one-half barrels of oil per household per year. Oil costs about US$100 per barrel these days and a 40 gallon solar water heater costs about J$95,000 which paints a clear picture.
|
Solar panels, a possible way for Jamaica to reduce its energy bill. |
The electric heater used in this example would cost you about J$3,600 each month to run and so, depending on the cost of money, repayment would be about 3 to 4 years.
Whenever a country reduces its “carbon footprint” i.e. reduces the amount of carbon dioxide it generates by burning oil the resultant savings may be a saleable commodity. If that country’s emissions fall below a set quota the unused amount can be sold as carbon credits which can be purchased, privately or on the open market, by entities whose operation generate in excess of their own allotment.
Solar water heaters
All of this is by international convention. My scenario of 50,000 homes replacing electric water heaters with solar water heaters would, over five years reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by about 310,000 tons and this could potentially be sold for about J$540 million.
Imagine if the Government came up with a J$4 billion programme to supply and install 50,000 solar water heaters to replace electric heaters. The reduced oil bill plus carbon credit sales would accrue to about J$3.8 billion to the nation over five years. That is not the end of it. There would be the benefit of job creation (for installation) and taxation of income from the workers involved. It would seem that the short pay-back time for this programme is deserving of consideration.
The Government is aware of the advantages in promoting the use of solar water heaters and the NHT has a very commendable programme of lending up to J$250,000 for 5 years at 3 per cent provided there is a title for the property and the borrower is a current contributor. For the solar water used in this scenario the monthly payment would be less than the savings on the electricity bill! So there is every reason to take advantage of this facility for personal and national reasons. Due to the national advantage, however, the NHT should perhaps consider lending to others and not only current contributors.
LED bulbs
|LED bulbs are currently the most efficient bulbs on the market today. A 5-watt LED bulb is equivalent to a 16W fluorescent bulb (CFL) or a 70W incandescent light. A household using ten 5W LEDs for an average of five hours per day will incur a monthly “light” bill of about J$300 per month for these bulbs. (Fluorescent bulbs to provide the same lighting would cost about J$900 per month.) If this were applied to 50,000 households over five years the LEDs compared with CFLs would save J$600 milllion of oil imports and allow some J$100 million in carbon credit. The five hundred thousand 5W bulbs would cost about J$550 million and each bulb should last for over ten years. This could likely be a feasible project for Government funding. Yes, there was a light bulb scandal before but this does not mean that we must not try again – we must learn from the past. LED bulbs are too cost-efficient to ignore.
One or two 100-watt solar panels can supply all the electricity for LED lighting for a middle class home and further increase the savings in oil and income from carbon credits. Perhaps the local electrical code should consider mandating that lights to be on a sub-panel for easy of separation of lights from the mains supply so that a Solar panel can be easily be used for lighting with mains power as back-up.
If your fridge is about ten years old chances are that you are using twice as much energy as a modern fridge. The most modern energy-efficient fridge – the inverter fridge – uses about 40 per cent of the power of other modern refrigerators. Again, continuing my scenario let’s look at 50,000 inverter fridges. The oil plus carbon credits saved over five years would be as much as J$700 million compared to other modern fridges. Remember that this refers to modern refrigerators and that the savings could easily be twice as much depending on the age and type or refrigerator. So when it is time to replace a fridge this is what you should take into account. An inverter fridge is most cost effective if you supply your own electricity because you can use less panels in your photovoltaic system.
Solar panels
Consider the situation if we go all the way and put 50,000 houses fully off-grid – i.e. supplying their own electricity by solar panels. The cost for the systems would be approximately J$28 billion. Solar panels are now quite cost effective, but batteries are not as economical. That hurdle can be overcome by developing a local industry. Locals are getting into the Lead/Acid battery industry and are targeting the deep cycle battery market. Over a 5 year horizon these systems could save some J$14 billion in oil and carbon credits. This suggests a 10 year payback (oil at US$100/barrel) but how many expect that price to hold for ten years? World oil has peaked – i.e. most readily accessible oil is used up and current supplies are difficult to mine.
Where does all this take us?
Airlift has impacted the shipping business; post offices have scaled down due to the use of email; camera films sales have crashed due to digital cameras; cellular telephony has all but knocked out landline telephony; cable television has reduced movie box office sales; answering machines and computers and automation have put people out of work; and the list goes on and on, and, somewhere, in the not too distant future, the giant power companies will give ground to individual power production. Up until recently (if not still so) Bermuda, an island with near zero unemployment and good financial statistics did not have piped water and instead, homes store roof run off under the building. I now see electricity heading in the general direction of using the top of the building. Yes, Jamaica was one of the first countries in the world to have mains electricity but let us not be the last to recognize the inevitable changes.
So if we spend so much less on oil, even if our earnings remain stagnant, do we get growth? Minister of Energy, Philip Paulwell is well aware of all that is going on in the world of energy and we expect him to guide us through the process of change as he did for telecommunications.
Next time let’s look closer at air conditioning and motor cars and start with the fact that a small conventional automobile produces as much carbon as a small family!
Robert Evans is a Civil Engineer.
Read more:
