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Since Jamaica’s energy mix is over 90% reliant on diesel fuel to provide electricity for the country this should be very troubling. If you think your electric bills are high now Jamaica just wait until oil hits US$100 a barrel this year. Solar for you business now! Since businesses run in the days they can utilize the suns energy. Dont listen to the false reports that solar is not beneficial for Jamaica. Those reports are coming from sources who benefit from high electricity costs. Especially since we at Solar Buzz have secured 4-6% interest rates and up to 15yr terms on overseas commercial green loans. SAVE YOUR BUSINESS NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!!! Contact us for a free evaluation on our energy management system and solar solution.
Solar for residential will be cheaper when JPS stops blocking the nation from having net billing or net metering. JPS and the govt are not working fast enough to allow Jamaica to save through alternative energy because JPS is greedy and the govt owns 20% of JPS so high prices benefit them both. The government who can help the country solve the energy issue instead of pushing false hopes of LNG, which at best is 5yrs away, will reign supreme. That’s not hard to figure out but instead they push a solution (LNG) that will cost JPS or tax payers US$700 million in upgrades. Why? Take a guess Jamaica. The cost of LNG is not promised and will rise as world demand rises locking us into the a similar oil situation in the future. See the fuel prices in today’s Observers article below and brace yourself for a painful year in electricity costs.
MOTORISTS will pay more at the pump when they fill up tomorrow following the latest ex-refinery prices announced by Petrojam today, among increases for all of its petroleum products.
Kerosene will recorded the largest increase, up $2.69 to $94.02 per litre.
Diesel will increase $1.96 to $91.92 per litre. Meanwhile gasoline 87 and 90 will both rise by 51 cents to $89.82 and $91.48 per litre respectively.
Increasing by the same amount as gasolene, propane (liquid petroleum gas) will cost $37.43. Butane (LPG) will increase by 2 cents to $45.73 per litre.
Marketers will add their respective margins.
Related articles
- As oil nears $100 mark, threat to nascent recovery grows (theglobeandmail.com)
- bill clinton tells jamaica and the caribbean to embrace renewable energy (greenantilles.com)
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The Government’s plan to introduce liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been engulfed in even more controversy in the wake of a damning November 2010 report by a World Bank-recommended team of consultants.
While the consultants acknowledged that LNG was the right choice for the nation over coal, they have suggested to the Bruce Golding administration that it should put its plan on hold until the middle of this year while the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) presents a new regulatory framework.
However, the local LNG team is adamant that it is on the correct course and the energy ministry yesterday argued that while some of the changes recommended by the consultants should be implemented, others are to be discarded as they were not sufficiently informed and did not capture all the information gained by the local officials.
With the LNG project now being driven from the Office of the Prime Minister, the team from the energy ministry has sought to convince Golding that it has so far been heading in the right direction.
“That (consultants) assessment report raised several valid questions of the project, for which comprehensive answers were provided,” Energy Minister James Robertson said in a release yesterday.
“Further yet; audits, operational reports and reviews from respected local and international consultants on a sustained basis, inclusive of taking on board the opinions of our independent development partners, continue to be undertaken,” Robertson added.
The energy minister did not release the report of the consultants but The Gleaner has obtained an extensive response provided by the local LNG team, which operated out of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica and the energy ministry.
While dealing extensively with many of the concerns raised by the consultants, the local team did not comment on fears about the financial viability of Exmar Consortium, which has already been selected for a lead role in the project.
Parallel moves a must
However, the local team was strident as it dismissed the consul-tants’ call for the project to be placed on hold.
The local team argued that the development of a regulatory framework and the implementation of final rules must be done in parallel with the ongoing efforts to identify the offtakers, develop the commercial framework and land LNG.
The team also scoffed at the claims by the consultants that there was ambiguity and uncertainties surrounding several aspects of the project which could make it a financial disaster for the Government.
According to the consultants, a focused economic and financial feasibility study must be completed quickly before a final design specification for the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit and pipeline system.
But the local team argued that the pipeline would be fully regulated by the OUR while the other areas are being addressed.
The local team was most dismissive of the consultants’ claim that the Government could be exposed to great financial risk for future gas purchase.
This the consultants linked to the failure of the Government to obtain a letter of intent to purchase from the bauxite company Jamalco and its inability to obtain a purchase commitment from the Jamaica Public Service Company.
“This statement is incorrect. The Government of Jamaica will have no financial responsibility for gas purchases,” stated the local LNG team in a retort.
According to the local team, while it remains optimistic that Jamalco will participate in phase one of the LNG project, even without Jamalco, the threshold volume would be sufficient to support the venture.
Christopher Zacca, the head of the government team leading the LNG project, has so far refused to comment on the individual concerns raised by the consultants.
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The Bellevue Hospital in Kingston is looking forward to cuts in its electricity bill after receiving a gift of seven solar outdoor lighting system donated by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).
The solar panels, which were recently installed, will save the health facility some $700,000 per year, representing approximately five per cent savings.
PCJ Chairman Paris Lyew-Ayee said yesterday that with oil prices on the increase, it is important that the Government be a leader in saving the commodity.
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AN INDEPENDENT consultant has suggested that Government rethink aspects of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
Christopher Zacca, head of the steering committee that has been set up to lead the project, told The Gleaner last week that he was not prepared to speak about the issues that have been raised in the report. He, however, said the advice of the consultants is being followed to ensure the project’s success.
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The prime minister got that bit right. The concentration of his administration going forward must be on “stimulating growth and creating jobs”.
For the PM’s goal to be sustainably achieved, though, it will demand a competitive economy. In this regard, we feel that energy is the potential game-changer.
That is why this newspaper insists that while it moves quickly on an energy policy, the administration must do so with due care to ensure that whatever is introduced provides power to consumers at the cheapest price. We are not convinced that this has been the case, so far.
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WITH THE cost of crude oil shooting above US$90 per barrel and the likelihood of it holding firm well into the middle of June, the implications for Jamaica, with a high dependency on fossil fuel, are dire.
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THE POPULAR concept is that coal is a dirty fuel, especially with regard to particulates, sulphur and carbon-dioxide emissions. With natural gas, the level of particulates would be lower than with coal, but in the latter instance, the particulate emissions with modern coal-burning boilers equipped with effective particulate-removal equipment would be substantially lower than are currently being experienced with the oil-burning boilers.
Sulphur emissions with either fuel will be dependent on the source of the fuel. Low-sulphur coal (less than one per cent by weight) is available relatively close to Jamaica, for example, Colombia and Venezuela.
However, even at the current relatively high sulphur emissions, complaints from persons in the areas adjacent to the power stations are rare.
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Government departments and institutions accounted for up to $11 billion, or approximately $880 million monthly, in electricity costs last year – nearly 15 per cent of the total amount of electricity consumed annually in Jamaica.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Energy and Mining Minister James Robertson, who disclosed this information during a workshop staged last Thursday at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston, cited government agencies and departments, as well as public schools and hospitals, among the primary consumers.
Oil accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the country’s total import bill.
Golding said Jamaica, which has one of the world’s highest energy-intensive ratings, was also one of the most inefficient users of electricity.
“We use 20,000 BTUs (British thermal units) to produce one US dollar of output of value. The global average is less than quarter of that.
“We waste energy, and Jamaica’s economic future cannot be secured unless we address this problem in a fundamental way,” the prime minister lamented.
Golding said the Government, through the energy and mining ministry, had developed four significant platforms – the national energy, national renewable energy, national energy from waste as well as the energy conservation and efficiency policies – to address the issue.
However, the prime minister acknowledged that Jamaica experienced several challenges to fulfilling some objectives in the national energy policy, which called for increasing the mix of renewable energy sources.
“Right now, we’re somewhere near five per cent, and the policy requires we get up to 10 per cent by 2015 and 20 per cent by 2030. That’s ambitious and particularly challenging,” Golding admitted.
He said the challenges were even more pronounced when analysis examined Scandinavian countries, which were environmentally conscious and advanced in their use of renewable energy sources, albeit paying more for it.
“Renewable energy is not always cheaper energy, but they are prepared to pay more in order to get energy that is clean, green and sustainable. Our consumers can’t be asked to bear that burden, and that’s part of our problem,” Golding said.
Conservation important
The prime minister added that while any search for alternative energy sources also had to be cheaper – in order for them to be viable – conservation was important to sustainable energy management.
Golding accused Jamaicans of being price-insensitive when it came to energy conservation, citing motorists’ refusal to change fuel-consumption patterns during 2008 when oil prices rose as high as US$148 per barrel.
The Government’s 10 per cent GCT charge on the electricity bills of persons consuming more than 200 kilowatt-hours monthly in order to make up revenue shortfall had little effect on consumption patterns.
“The information I have from the JPS (Jamaica Public Service Company – the monopoly electricity provider) is that they haven’t even blinked. They pay the 10 per cent and consume the same amount of electricity,” said Golding.
