“In about three years you are going to see degradation in the generating capacity and units are going to start to fail
“In about three years you are going to see degradation in the generating capacity and units are going to start to fail
Arthur Hall, Senior News Editor
After a decade of expensive flirting and the expenditure of some US$4 million, the Government has finally ended its attempt at introducing liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the solution to the country’s high electricity prices.
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell last week blamed the unavailability of the supply of LNG at reasonable prices as the reason for the reversal of a decision which had found favour with successive administrations over the past decade.
“Last year, in the middle of all that we were doing, I went to Angola to try to find gas. I recently went to Nigeria. I have been trying to find gas that makes sense,” Paulwell told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum as he noted that the original source for the gas, Trinidad and Tobago, has now officially been abandoned.
“2010 with Exmar would have been the best time to pursue an LNG deal. At that time, the market situation was right, Exmar had a number of projects going so they could benefit from the volume.
“Since then, the price of LNG has gone up, largely due to the demand out of Asia,” said Paulwell as he noted that the price of LNG has more than doubled since the Exmar agreement was abandoned.
According to Paulwell, he always favoured coal over LNG and had made a recommendation to that effect to the Cabinet shortly before the People’s National Party was voted out of power in 2006.
Mullings favoured coal
Clive Mullings, who replaced Paulwell as energy minister in the Jamaica Labour Party administration, also favoured coal and is believed to have lost his place in the Bruce Golding-led Cabinet because he bucked his colleagues who agreed that LNG was the way forward.
With Paulwell now done with LNG, coal will be in the fuel mix but gas remains highly favoured as the main alternative source of energy for the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS).
“I am not going CLG (compressed liquid gas) and I’m not going LNG,” Paulwell told the Gleaner editors even as he refused to say exactly what would be the option.
Instead, the energy minister said major discussions are slated for tomorrow which could determine how quickly Jamaican consumers will get cheaper electricity.
He said officials of the JPS, the major players in the bauxite industry, the Government and an international investor are to meet in Kingston in an attempt to iron out an agreement.
“If that agreement is reached, the natural gas project is on,” said Paulwell as he refused to provide any further details on what he described as sensitive negotiations which have been taking place over the last two months.
Close to recommendation
Paulwell declared that after all the discussions and negotiations which took place last year, he is close to being in a position to recommend a firm position to the Cabinet.
He said if there is no agreement out of tomorrow’s meeting, his backup plan will include the introduction of interim solutions of small generation facilities, including renewables while moving towards the introduction of coal.
“Coal won’t come for about four years, even though the Chinese have said they could bring it in two years,” said Paulwell who is adamant that the price of electricity to the Jamaican consumer must move to between 15 and 18 US cents per kilowatt-hour (c/kWh) instead of the present 40-41 US c/kWh
Paulwell had previously announced that the JPS would be introducing LNG at its soon-to-be constructed 360-megawatt plant in Old Harbour, St Catherine.
“The Government of Jamaica decided it was no longer going to be the procurer for gas and it put the ball back in the court of the company that received the licence but it did not mean we would be sitting ideally by, so we have been very engaged in the process,” said Paulwell.
While admitting that it will not be his call if the JPS accepts the gas project now on the table, Paulwell said he would be urging the parties to find common ground when they meet tomorrow as this could lead to lower electricity prices at the earliest time.
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell is staking his political career on cutting the cost of electricity to Jamaicans by more than 50 per cent.
Last week, during a Gleaner forum, Paulwell listed the steps he plans to take to ensure that electricity from the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) becomes much cheaper over the next three to four years.
1. Fuel diversification
Plan:
Arthur Hall, Senior News Editor
After a decade of expensive flirting and the expenditure of some US$4 million, the Government has finally ended its attempt at introducing liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the solution to the country’s high electricity prices.
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell last week blamed the unavailability of the supply of LNG at reasonable prices as the reason for the reversal of a decision which had found favour with successive administrations over the past decade.
“Last year, in the middle of all that we were doing, I went to Angola to try to find gas. I recently went to Nigeria. I have been trying to find gas that makes sense,” Paulwell told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum as he noted that the original source for the gas, Trinidad and Tobago, has now officially been abandoned.
“2010 with Exmar would have been the best time to pursue an LNG deal. At that time, the market situation was right, Exmar had a number of projects going so they could benefit from the volume.
“Since then, the price of LNG has gone up, largely due to the demand out of Asia,” said Paulwell as he noted that the price of LNG has more than doubled since the Exmar agreement was abandoned.
According to Paulwell, he always favoured coal over LNG and had made a recommendation to that effect to the Cabinet shortly before the People’s National Party was voted out of power in 2006.
Mullings favoured coal
Clive Mullings, who replaced Paulwell as energy minister in the Jamaica Labour Party administration, also favoured coal and is believed to have lost his place in the Bruce Golding-led Cabinet because he bucked his colleagues who agreed that LNG was the way forward.
With Paulwell now done with LNG, coal will be in the fuel mix but gas remains highly favoured as the main alternative source of energy for the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS).
“I am not going CLG (compressed liquid gas) and I’m not going LNG,” Paulwell told the Gleaner editors even as he refused to say exactly what would be the option.
Instead, the energy minister said major discussions are slated for tomorrow which could determine how quickly Jamaican consumers will get cheaper electricity.
He said officials of the JPS, the major players in the bauxite industry, the Government and an international investor are to meet in Kingston in an attempt to iron out an agreement.
“If that agreement is reached, the natural gas project is on,” said Paulwell as he refused to provide any further details on what he described as sensitive negotiations which have been taking place over the last two months.
Close to recommendation
Paulwell declared that after all the discussions and negotiations which took place last year, he is close to being in a position to recommend a firm position to the Cabinet.
He said if there is no agreement out of tomorrow’s meeting, his backup plan will include the introduction of interim solutions of small generation facilities, including renewables while moving towards the introduction of coal.
“Coal won’t come for about four years, even though the Chinese have said they could bring it in two years,” said Paulwell who is adamant that the price of electricity to the Jamaican consumer must move to between 15 and 18 US cents per kilowatt-hour (c/kWh) instead of the present 40-41 US c/kWh
Paulwell had previously announced that the JPS would be introducing LNG at its soon-to-be constructed 360-megawatt plant in Old Harbour, St Catherine.
“The Government of Jamaica decided it was no longer going to be the procurer for gas and it put the ball back in the court of the company that received the licence but it did not mean we would be sitting ideally by, so we have been very engaged in the process,” said Paulwell.
While admitting that it will not be his call if the JPS accepts the gas project now on the table, Paulwell said he would be urging the parties to find common ground when they meet tomorrow as this could lead to lower electricity prices at the earliest time.
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell is staking his political career on cutting the cost of electricity to Jamaicans by more than 50 per cent.
Last week, during a Gleaner forum, Paulwell listed the steps he plans to take to ensure that electricity from the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) becomes much cheaper over the next three to four years.
1. Fuel diversification
Plan:
THE 360-megawatt (MW) electricity generation plant to be located in Old Harbour, St Catherine, is now expected to come on stream in early 2016.
What’s more, commercial scale renewable energy projects won’t get the go-ahead until preferred bidders are selected from an ongoing request for proposal, which is scheduled to end in April.
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The commissioning of the 66-MW West Kingston Power Plant last year would have led to more efficient generation, allowing for a reduction in the overall fuel bill of Jamaica. |
Bringing it closer to the home or business also doesn’t appear to make solar-powered generating systems, or photovoltaic systems, any more feasible, given the sluggish process involved in getting them into net billing contracts.
And while electricity rates are at historical highs in Jamaica and it appears that Jamaica Public Service Company’s (JPS’s) customers won’t see a dramatic reduction in rates for years to come, some businesses still stand to benefit from power wheeling as early as this year.
Wheeling would give private entities access to JPS’s distribution lines to provide its own electricity at several sites across the island.
The OUR is now conducting a public consultation on a wheeling framework that would determine how self-generators would be charged for use of the national grid and aims to publish a determination notice on February 15.
Even then, wheeling has been a long time coming for some companies.
“The Jamaica Broilers (JB) Group has, over the years, invested considerable sums in its co-generation power plant with the hope that 2012 would have been the year that “power wheeling” became a reality in Jamaica,” said the company’s assistant vice-president of energy, John Carberry. “After a firm commitment by the nation’s leaders that this would be in place for 2012, the group was disappointed by several postponements and revisions of previously communicated launch dates.”
The uncertainty constrained the group’s further planned investments, but now JB hopes the framework and logistics will be unveiled early in 2013.
The commissioning of Jamaica Energy Partners’s (JEP’s) 66-MW West Kingston Power Plant last year meant more efficient generation, allowing for a reduction in the overall fuel bill of Jamaica, according to JEP’s managing director, Wayne McKenzie.
“This would have resulted in a lower heat rate system-wide,” he said.
The OUR also raised efficiency requirements, through the lowering of the heat rate target, that should have resulted in a 2.6 per cent reduction in fuel charges, which coupled with a 1.1 per cent increase in non-fuel tariff allowed to JPS, should have led to an overall reduction in electricity rates.
Nevertheless, JPS fuel rates ended last year 13 per cent higher than at the start, albeit slightly lower than the peak of $24 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in May, and was on average six per cent higher than the average in 2011.
JB said it took a leadership position in the use of renewable energy in its poultry operations last year. It embarked on a solar photovoltaic (PV) energy programme “that sees its contract farmer network making the single largest investment in renewable solar energy in the Jamaican manufacturing sector”, according to Carberry.
“This programme continues to roll out through 2013 and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2013,” he said.
But participating farmers have expressed grave concerns as their efforts to expedite the standard offer contract (SOC) with JPS has been challenged by “the slow pace of the required administrative support to facilitate the necessary Grid -tied connections and metering”, according to the JB
vice-president.
“It is hoped that 2013 will see this process being streamlined as it threatens to derail the progress made thus far,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
The OUR said that in order
to facilitate a smooth implementation process, a sub-committee including members from the Bureau of Standards, MSTEM and JPS has been established by the National Energy Council to deliberate and resolve issues related to its implementation.
Twenty-six licences have been issued since the project was implemented at the end of May.
On a larger scale, investors wanting to build out renewable energy capacity in the latest round of investments in Jamaica will have to do so by early 2015.
Up to 115 megawatts (MW) are up for grabs.
The regulator is pushing for renewable generation plants to be up and running by May 2015.
Currently, approximately 64 MW of the 930 MW installed generating capacity in Jamaica is made up of wind and hydroelectric generators.
Another 6.4 MW hydro plant in Magotty, St Elizabeth, is set to come on line next year. Adding another 115 MW to that amount would substantially increase the proportion of electricity generated by renewables.
However, JPS’s owners are bringing 360 MW of capacity to be fired by natural gas on stream by 2015, to replace older and less efficient plants, which are rated at 292 MW, and add 68 MW to the grid.
The new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants are now expected to come on line by the first quarter of 2016, instead of mid 2014 as originally required, or 2015 as was projected up to late last year.
The delay in implementing the largest single power generation project in Jamaica was due to uncertainties in the delivery date and price for procurement of natural gas through the GOJ Steering Committee led LNG Project.
However, last year the Government dropped the LNG Project, opting instead to leave the procurement to the private sector, or more specifically the owners of the new power plant.
“2013 may be a watershed year for generation in Jamaica,” said McKenzie. “The status of the natural gas project decides how pricing of energy and development will be done going forward. One must be mindful that a true fuel mix is required for generation and not just a majority switch from heavy fuel oil to natural gas.”
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Cabinet has approved the introduction of policy standards for street lights aimed at reducing the cost of powering them.
The government said implementation of the policy will be underpinned by the requisite regulations, to enable the use of the most energy efficient and cost effective units.
The Cabinet has also authorised the exploration of feasible options for the introduction of light emitting diode or LED street lights on a wide scale across Jamaica.
There are over 93,000 street lights in Jamaica.
Projected cost for this year is some $2.8 billion.
Homeowners are being advised to get a licenced electrician to check their house wiring before putting up decorative lights, in order to prevent fires.
The warning came from Assistant Superintendent in charge of Communication at the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), Emilio Ebanks, as he addressed a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank.
He said that house wiring that is over five years old needs to be checked before the decorative lights are plugged into the household circuit. He said that the increased electricity demand, coupled with unsafe wiring, increases the risk of fires, the destruction of property and the loss of life.
Homeowners are being advised to get a licenced electrician to check their house wiring before putting up decorative lights, in order to prevent fires.
The warning came from Assistant Superintendent in charge of Communication at the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), Emilio Ebanks, as he addressed a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank.
He said that house wiring that is over five years old needs to be checked before the decorative lights are plugged into the household circuit. He said that the increased electricity demand, coupled with unsafe wiring, increases the risk of fires, the destruction of property and the loss of life.
The group Citizens United to Reduce Electricity (CURE) is claiming that the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is now in a better position reduce the cost of energy.
In a statement, the group said it had evidence that the independent supplier, Jamaica Energy Partners now provides 30 per cent of the required electricity to the national grid at approximately US$0. 21 per kilowatt hour.
CURE is claiming that the electricity is sold to JPS and then passed on to consumers at US$0. 41 per kilowatt hour.
The advocacy group is recommending that it instead be distributed at US$0.25 which would still be profitable for the JPS and its partners.
The group is of the view that Jamaica is therefore in a position to benefit significantly from lower electricity rates.
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