electricity Archives - Page 6 of 18

High energy costs push NIC towards alternative power sources

December 15, 2015 Webmaster

As is the case with most local operations, the National Irrigation Commission (NIC) says energy eats up a large chunk of its operational expenses, with the State-run company spending close to $500 million on electricity in 2014/2015.

This accounted for 40 per cent of its operating costs, and already for this year, the commission’s electricity bill is at 47 per cent of operational costs. “So it is increasing as we bring on additional areas. Once there is a drought, then we have to increase the amount of pumping that is done in each of these districts. In some areas, for some months the electricity cost is greater than the revenue that we generate,” NIC Managing Director Mark Richards explained at yesterday’s

Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.

The NIC provides irrigation services mainly to the agricultural sector, and to a lesser extent industrial and commercial operations in Yallahs, St Thomas; Rio Cobre and Colbeck in St Catherine; central clarendon; New Forest and Duff House, in Manchester; Braco, Trelawny; Hounslow and Beacon/Little Park, in St Elizabeth; and Seven Rivers in St James

“Our electricity cost is one of the significant challenges that we operate under. We are the second-biggest consumer and payee of the JPS. For the year so far up to October, we are at $330 million. So it’s a challenge [and]we are looking at different energy management strategies and engineering strategies [such as] retrofitting our pumps [and] scheduling of our flows in order to better match the service to deal with the demand,” Director of Technical Services Milton Henry explained.

Henry said the commission faces a peculiar challenge, as while energy prices are trending down, the NIC has to be ramping up its operations to satisfy increasing demand for irrigated water.

“Every system we bring on is contributing to our cost, and we have not been able to pass on those costs to our farmers; so as we partner with them, we are saying let us find some more efficient approaches. We have had quite a bit of success… we have grown our business at a time of major challenges and continue to do so,” Henry said, noting that the NIC’s customer base has doubled from 1,265 in 2006 to 2,349 in 2014.

The NIC has moved to cut down on energy costs by retrofitting 15 of its stations with energy-saving devices. It is also looking to solar and wind energy sources. “So far we did a wind study in Manchester with a view to putting in a five megawatt capacity which would meet a significant portion of our demand. The study has been completed and shows that it is feasible. We are expected to move to the next phase… with some urgency,” he said.

The NIC is also eagerly awaiting the resumption of net billing, which the JPS suspended in May to carry out a review of the two-year pilot programme. The assessment which was conducted by the United States’ National Renewable Energy Laboratory has been completed, but up to last month the energy ministry was not able to tell stakeholders in the solar energy sector exactly when the programme would resume.

Jamaica Observer

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Coalition urges action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Members of the Jamaican delegation to COP21 at the Wider Caribbean Pavilion (from left) Ambassador Sheila Sealy Monteith, under secretary for the Multilateral Affairs Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Vilma McNeish, ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union; Senator Arnold J Nicholson, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade; Dr Orville Grey, senior technical officer in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change; and Jeffrey Spooner, head of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica.

PARIS, France — An unprecedented coalition of close to 40 governments, hundreds of businesses and influential international organisations have called for accelerated action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, a move that would help bridge the gap to keep global temperature rise below 2°C and perhaps close to the 1.5°C for which Caricom and other Small Island Developing States are advocating.

On the opening day of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) last week, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key formally presented the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on behalf of the Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group and other supporters of the communiqué.

The communiqué calls on the international community to increase efforts to phase out perverse subsidies to fossil fuels by promoting policy transparency, ambitious reform and targeted support for the poorest.

Governments spend over $500 billion of public resources a year to keep domestic prices for oil, gas and coal artificially low. Removing fossil fuel subsidies would reduce greenhouse gas emission by 10 per cent by 2050. It would also free up resources to invest in social and physical capital like education, healthcare and infrastructure, while levelling the playing field for renewable energy.

“Fossil fuel subsidy reform is the missing piece of the climate change puzzle,” Prime Minister Key said. “It’s estimated that more than a third of global carbon emissions, between 1980 and 2010, were driven by fossil fuel subsidies. Their elimination would represent one-seventh of the effort needed to achieve our target of ensuring global temperatures do not rise by more than 2°C. As with any subsidy reform, change will take courage and strong political will, but with oil prices at record lows and the global focus on a low carbon future, the timing for this reform has never been better.”

In accepting the communiqué, Figueres said: “These subsidies contribute to the inefficient use of fossil fuels, undermine the development of energy efficient technologies, act as a drag on clean, green energy deployment and in many developing countries do little to assist the poorest of the poor in the first place.

“The huge sums involved globally could be better spent on schools, health care, renewable energies and building resilient societies. The current, very low oil prices are a good opportunity to really get going on this issue.”

Chair of The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) and former president of Alstom Power, Philippe Joubert, also spoke last Monday.

“The CLG’s long-standing efforts to put a price on carbon, including most recently working with the World Bank through the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, will soon deliver results. It doesn’t make sense that, at the same time, governments artificially deflate the cost of coal, oil and gas, the primary cause of GHG emissions. Fossil fuel subsidies must be ended to stop this contradiction and enhance a real transition to low carbon energy,” he said.

For the OECD’s part, Secretary-General Angel Gurría commented that countries need to demonstrate their seriousness about combating climate change with concrete actions and policies.

“Reforming harmful fossil-fuel support is a good place to start,” Gurría stressed.

Close to 40 countries have endorsed the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué, including Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Samoa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, and Uruguay.

The communiqué is supported by The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group (23 global companies employing two million people worldwide with combined revenues exceeding US$170 billion) and other business organisations working with thousands of corporations and investors, including The B Team, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the We Mean Business coalition.

The communiqué has also been endorsed by influential international organisations, including the International Energy Agency, the OECD and the World Bank.

Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies can accelerate the economic shift needed to tackle climate change and remove one of the obstacles to delivering the low-carbon future for which COP21 is aiming.

“History will prove fossil fuel to be a dead end,” Stefan Löfven, prime minister of Sweden, said. “Sweden will be amongst the first fossil-free welfare nations of the world. And eliminating fossil fuel subsidies is an important step on this path.”

Hakima El Haite, Morocco’s environment minister and candidate for the presidency of COP22, added: “Not only do fossil fuel subsidies put a strain on government coffers but they also don’t help the poorest of society.”

COP21 began on November 30 and will run until Friday, December 11.

Jamaica Observer

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Financially Speaking | Jamaica’s Spectacular LNG Record

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Lest we forget, Jamaica has been trying to strike deals to migrate to liquefied natural gas (LNG), and failing at it spectacularly, for well over a decade.

It all began four prime ministers ago, when Percival James Patterson was in charge and sought to broker a deal with his counterpart, Patrick Manning, in Trinidad in 2001. And we knew Patterson was serious about the issue, because that time he did not form a committee around it.

Still, it didn’t end well. Trinidad began to waffle – after all, it could get better prices for its fossil elsewhere. Jamaica wanted concessionary pricing for a yearly 1.1 million tonnes of natural gas as a family member in Caricom, but Trinidad was in favour of the hub. Business, after all, is business.

Patterson even put a dedicated man in charge of the LNG programme. That didn’t help. And since then, almost every effort at adding gas to the energy mix has coagulated. You know you have a problem when international headlines pop up asking, ‘Is Jamaica’s Energy Cursed?’

To recap, the actors in Jamaica’s LNG serialised melodrama have included Anthony Hylton, James Robertson, Clive Mullings, Christopher Zacca, Phillip Paulwell, Kelly Tomblin, Exmar, Caribbean LNG, Azurest, Energy World International, Jamaica Public Service Company and now Abengoa SA. Perhaps the only clairvoyant in the mix was Mullings, who, back in 2008, began touting coal as a more practical choice for diluting the viscosity of oil on Jamaica’s balance of payments, given the vagaries of supply in the LNG market.

Not everyone loved the idea. The thought of coal was a bit dirty, and risky, but it wasn’t entirely dismissed. Fracking has now changed that dynamic somewhat.

In 2014, some 13 years since the Patterson-Manning bro-pact and a decade after the more formalised LNG heads of agreement, ESET emerged as the latest reset when current Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller reached out to an old and trusted ally of Patterson’s – Dr Vincent ‘Head of Kitchen Cabinet’ Lawrence – to bring an end to the confusion that had become Jamaica’s energy policy.

Being a glutton for punishment, Jamaica held on to its LNG ambitions, but also opened up to proposals for coal, compressed gas, and natural liquid gases such as ethane and propane.

Blame it on the cosmos

But even the doc, despite the heavenly moniker that had been bestowed on him in the past, has been no match for the supremacy of Murphy’s law, or whatever it is in the cosmos that appears to want Jamaica to stay wedded to crude. First, the American Ethane/UC Rusal arrangement fell apart – which Lawrence insisted would not derail the 2018 schedule to begin cutting electricity prices – and now there is Abengoa.

Right about now, JPS boss Kelly Tomblin likely has fingers crossed, hoping that New Fortress Energy won’t throw up any surprises; that the arrangement with the American company to supply gas to JPS’ Montego Bay plant will – please, oh please – go right.

General Electric is currently retrofitting Bogue for LNG – a US$22.54-million project that seems to escaped the curse – and Fortress Energy is to start delivering gas by mid-2016. The final terms of the Fortress engagement are now being negotiated.

Before the LNG project was revised from a 360MW single project and split into bite-size pieces under ESET, JPS itself had tried to take on the task under a US$600-million plan that went nowhere. The power utility was said to have a financing revolver lined up but could not secure the gas supplies at the right price.

Under the reset, JPS has two projects to execute – the 120MW Bogue project in Montego Bay for which it has contracted New Fortress, and the 190MW project in Old Harbour Bay. For the latter, JPS reportedly got several bids but chose Abengoa SA, which just days later filed for bankruptcy protection to restructure billions of debt.

Somebody hadn’t done their homework. One would have thought that JPS’s foreign parents Korea East West Power Company and Marubeni – both of which operate in the energy field – would have the temperature of another big energy player. But it appears that they, and the JPS consultants, did not.

Still, Tomblin and team appear to have other options were Abengoa to falter. The Spanish company has four months to right the ship, a timetable that collides with JPS’, which wants to start site prep for the Old Harbour plant by March in order to keep its 2018 commitment. Right about now, JPS is probably reinvestigating the other bidders, hopefully using a different set of consultants than the ones who delivered up the embarrassment of Abengoa.

Old Harbour is an important project for Tomblin, who wants her legacy at the Jamaican utility to be one of transformation. She got a Jamaican power generator and distributor to run, but she wants to leave it as a ‘gas and electric utility’ with a role in developing a regional gas supply hub for the Caribbean market. Old Harbour would be the fulcrum, assuming it gets built.

With Bogue and Old Harbour in play, around a third of base load capacity would be fired by gas, a cleaner and, as important, cheaper fuel source that will allow JPS to produce and supply electricity to the grid at a price below 13 US cents per kilowatt-hour, and knock 1.2 million barrels of oil off the country’s annual orders of crude.

Still, Murphy’s law is tenacious, which means that all Jamaica can do is pray that the stars will finally align in its favour and that the energy gods are in affinity with Vin.

The Gleaner

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OPEC Keeps Oil Production At Current High Level

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Nigeria’s Minister of State for petroleum resources and President of the OPEC conference Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu (left), and OPEC’s secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri of Libya attend a news conference after a meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Friday, December 4, 2015.

OPEC nations decided on Friday to keep producing oil at their current high levels, effectively acknowledging their inability to push up crude prices.

An attempt to nudge the cost of oil higher would have involved lowering output. Instead, the organisation’s endorsement of present output, which is more than 1.5 million barrels a day above the formal ceiling of 30 million barrels, is likely to push the price of oil down further.

The ministers of the Organis-ation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries appeared to have little choice. Major producing nations in the cartel were opposed to reducing output. Instead, OPEC is poised to produce more oil.

Iran, which once pumped around four million barrels a day and is now down to about half that, is preparing to come back fully on line once it sheds nuclear-related sanctions in a few months.

Senior oil official Amir Hossein Zamaninia said last week Iran hopes to bring an extra 500,000 barrels on the market by early next year. He said he hopes the extra output will be accommodated within OPEC’s formal ceiling of 30 million barrels a day.

Arriving for Friday’s meeting, Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran is ready to discuss a ceiling for its production but only after his country makes a “full return to the market.”

Iraq is also resurgent. The country has seen the fastest rise in crude production in the world this year. It was pumping more than 4 million barrels a day last month and was responsible for last month’s biggest monthly rise in output among all OPEC countries.

And the ministers agreed to readmit past member Indonesia, to expand their ranks to 13. While that country’s production goes mostly for domestic consumption, that move could also add some to the total amount of OPEC barrels on sale.

A final statement on the meeting was unusual in not mentioning any decision on production ceilings. But conference president Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told reporters that there was agreement to maintain “current actual production”, which is well above the formal ceiling set at 30 million barrels a day.

Friday’s news pushed oil prices down, with the US benchmark rate sliding 2.7 per cent on the day to US$39.99.

The decision effectively leaves it up to individual members how much crude to pump and was a strong signal of OPEC’s eroding ability to act as a group in efforts to influence supply, demand and prices.

Kachikwu acknowledged as much, telling reporters asking about Iran’s return: “At the end of the day every country has a sovereign right to bring to the marketplace its resources.”

“The logic is simple,” he said, of OPEC’s present clout in a market where non-members such as Russia and U.S. shale producers play an increasingly large role. “We are only 35 per cent of the producers and there are still 65 per cent out there.”

Some OPEC members are producing at their limit and like at previous meetings, the pressure was on swing-producer Saudi Arabia, which accounts for about a third of OPEC’s output, to cut back. But the desert kingdom remained opposed.

The Saudis already resisted cutbacks a year ago, a strategy calculated to put higher-cost outside competitors like United States shale oil producers out of business. The hope was that would eventually lead to a drop in supply and a rebound in prices.

That plan clearly hasn’t worked, with benchmark US crude’s value falling by more than 40 per cent over the past year and now hovering around the US$40 mark per barrel.

Cushioned by past profits on oil, the Saudis can hold out, even if production costs exceed sale revenues. Not so much some others.

Kachikwu, the conference president who also represented Nigeria at the meeting, acknowledged that continued low prices will hurt his country.

“There will be pain,” he said.

The Gleaner

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JPS Stands To Lose $400m Yearly From Prepaid Meters

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) claims that switching all its low-consuming users to prepaid meters would increase the risk profile of the utility provider, and secondly, cost it hundreds of millions in lost non-fuel revenue annually – an ironic twist given that the meters are meant to curtail losses.

JPS currently offers prepaid meters in select inner-city areas under a pilot programme, but its admission of the cost puts the timeline for its larger role in question.

“If all customers consuming less than 100 kilowatt hours switched to the prepaid service, JPS stands to lose J$399 million in non-fuel revenues per annum,” the power utility said in its annual tariff application documentation published late last month by its regulator, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).

“By any measure, this exposure is significant and further increases the risk profile of the company, especially given the challenges in meeting certain financial covenants.”

JPS holds US$324 million in long-term loans, and its financial covenants require a minimum undisclosed debt to earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation. The company was fully compliant with all its loan obligations as at September 2015.

Customers that consume less than 100 kWh are classified as Rate 10 users. These users usually are low-income households but account for some 222,000 of the 594,000 JPS customers, according to OUR documentation.

Regular customers – Rate 20 – who consume less than 75,000 kWh per month would remain revenue neutral for the switch to prepaid meters.

JPS added that this level of loss is “unsustainable” and is only acceptable for the remainder of the prepaid pilot which offers prepaid meters to a relatively small number of customers. The power utility wants the OUR to increase the prepaid rates to Rate 10 customers in order to remove a large part of that shortfall.

“We would, however, like to state that the rate structure should aim for revenue neutrality as the prepaid programme evolves,” said JPS.

The company proposed an adjustment to non-fuel tariff rates for Rate 10 prepaid customers to $14.4311/kWh for the first 119kWh in a 30-day cycle; and $20.5719/kWh for every kWh above 119kWh in a 30-day cycle.

The OUR rejected that specific JPS proposal. It approved instead a Rate 10 prepaid rate of $13.19/kWh for the first 100kWh in a 30-day cycle and $20.85/kWh for every kWh thereafter for a 30-day cycle.

JPS made US$23.7 million net profit over nine-months ending September 2015 on revenues of US$583 million which nearly doubled the US$12.5 million in profit earned a year earlier.

There was no response to mailed queries and calls to JPS for comment on this story up to press time.

The Gleaner

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Jamaica set to benefit from IDB Green Bond

November 30, 2015 Webmaster

WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — Jamaica is the only Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country that will benefit from an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) multimillion-dollar-funded regional Energy Efficiency Green Bond Facility.

The IDB said that it has approved financing to establish the facility and that the programme was selected to receive up to US$217 million in additional funding as one of eight projects worldwide in the first round of allocations announced by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) earlier this month.

“This private sector programme stands out for its innovative financial approach, involving small and medium enterprises and the potential mobilisation through capital markets of funds from different institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies,” said Gema Sacristan, IDB’s Financial Markets Division Chief.

Providing an alternative financing mechanism for energy efficiency projects through the issuance of green asset-backed securities (ABS), the programme will also contribute to the development of capital markets in the region.

The programme will introduce green ABS following the Green Bond Principles standards and will foster socially and environmentally responsible investments.

“The approval of this programme furthers our commitment to supporting Latin American and Caribbean countries in the implementation of their proposed Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs),” said Amal-Lee Amin, IDB’s Climate Change and Sustainability Division Chief.

“Tapping into domestic capital markets for refinancing of energy efficiency is key for increasing the scale of investment for de-carbonisation over the medium and longer-term.”

IDB said that Mexico will be the first country to implement this programme, followed by the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Colombia.

The IDB’s loan of up to US$400 million will be complemented by a loan of up to US$50 million from the China Co-Financing Fund, administered by the IDB, in connection with the first utilisation of the facility in Mexico.

Jamaica Observer

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ESET, JPS Not Worried By Bankruptcy

November 29, 2015 Webmaster

LIGHT AND power providers, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) said yesterday that it is getting independent advice from its lawyers on whether to proceed with a contract with Spanish firm Abengoa to construct its power plant at Old Harbour, St Catherine.

Kelly Tomblin, the chief executive officer of JPS said yesterday that its shareholders held a conference call with Abengoa to discuss the way forward.

Abengoa’s chief executive Santiago Seage resigned yesterday after it emerged the Spanish renewable energy giant was close to bankruptcy.

The JPS, with the assistance of AMEC Foster Wheeler, a consultancy firm, selected Abengoa whose package consists of general electric combined cycle frame 6B gas turbine. The light and power company was in the process of negotiating a performance contract when the matter of the bankruptcy came to light.

“We were never going to enter into a performance contract until we had some assurance about their financial abilities,” Tomblin said.

She said that December 9 was the deadline for Abengoa to satisfy JPS of its ability to undertake the project and hinted that the light and power company is getting ready to move beyond Abengoa.

“Their problem is that they have some debt coming due but they don’t have the cash to pay. They are going to try to utilise their assets and do other things but that takes too long so we won’t be able to wait out that,” Tomblin said.

The Electricity Sector Enterprise Committee, ESET, said that while it is watching the developments, it is not totally concerned at this point.

Profesor Alvin Wint, a member of the ESET, said that in addition to Abengoa, other entities had submitted detailed bids to construct the power plant and they would be in line to be considered to take on the project.

“We will be requiring that they move quickly and if they need to go to a plan B they go quickly,” Wint said.

Both major shareholders of JPS, Marubeni and Korea East West Power Company Limited have committed to each inject up to 50 per cent of the approximately US$990 million equity that is required to develop the 190 megawatt power plant by year end.

The JPS intends to raise approximately US$210 million in debt funding to help finance the project.

The Gleaner

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JPS 190MW Plant A US$300m Project – LNG Facility Won’t Harm Health Or Fish Stock, Residents Assured

November 28, 2015 Webmaster

The JPS power plant in Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine. Ian Allen

Continuous tests as well as monitoring of the construction and commercial operation of the gas-fired 190-megawatt power plant to be developed by Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) at Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine, have been promised, amid public concerns that the facility could eventually become a health hazzard.

Those health concerns were allayed by environmental consultant Carlton Campbell, who also assured the community in a consultation session Tuesday that they would have a mechanism for complaints for matters that arise when the project gets underway.

The public is weighing in on the environmental impact assessment report, which was done by Campbell’s company, CL Environmental Limited.

Such consultations are a precursor to final consideration and approval of a major project by the central authority, National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

Site preparation for the liquefied natural gas plant is scheduled to begin by the first quarter of 2016 and construction by the second quarter. Commissioning of the plant is expected 22 months later, which would be close to mid-2018 if the current timetable holds.

JPS recently settled on Spanish engineering and renewable energy firm Abengoa to develop the plant, but that selection is now complicated by bankruptcy filings by the company on Wednesday, which is seeking protection in order to restructure its debt of about €9 billion. Spanish law gives it four months to strike deals with creditors under ‘pre-insolvency’ proceedings and avoid full bankruptcy.

The size of the contract to Abengoa was not disclosed, but previous reports say the project could cost around US$200 million to US$300 million. CL’s environmental impact report indicates that capital expenditure for construction of the plant is US$219.5 million, but last night JPS clarified that this figure related to equipment only. The utility said the full project cost would end up closer to US$300 million.

Deliver power supplies

The new plant will retire old capacity at Old Harbour, and is expected to deliver power supplies to the national electricity grid at less than 13 US cents per kilowatt-hour. The current plant is oil-fired.

Old Harbour residents were told to expect intermittent traffic disruptions and longer commutes, as well as increases in the cost of travel once the 190MW project enters the construction phase.

Campbell said the expected noise levels were compliant with the night and daytime standards of NEPA and the World Bank, and that water and air quality as well as drainage and wastewater systems would be monitored continuously.

“There is a perception that there will be health implications from this new plant,” said Campbell, while ticking off a list of reported concerns that included respiratory problems, increased noise levels, pollution, vibration and soot emissions.

However, he said, a health impact study was conducted which showed that residents would not be affected.

The environmental consultant also said the natural gas emissions and effluent released from the plant were not expected to harm the fish stock on which a lot of residents of the village depend for their livelihood.

The plant is expected to employ 400-450 during construction, and 45 persons permanently at commissioning.

The project was submitted to NEPA for approval on September 2, 2014, and after initial review, the agency requested that JPS produce an environmental impact report. The report was submitted at the end of October and is under review by various agencies.

Their feedback will eventually be communicated to JPS.

“The agencies will therefore refrain from making any comments or answering any questions in relation to the development at this time, as the application is currently the subject of review,” said NEPA official Ruth-Ann Lacey-Sherrard at Tuesday night’s public consultation.

The presence of the agencies at the event, she said, was merely to observe and take note of public comments that would inform the deliberations of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) which is a division of NEPA.

“Please note, carefully, that the final decision on the application is the sole responsibility of the NRCA,” Lacey-Sherrard said.

“The agencies’ review of the public presentation and consultation processes is extremely important in the decision-making process. These consultation processes provide an additional opportunity for stakeholders to air their concerns, make comments, provide opinions and views on the development project, and afford the applicant the opportunity to address these,” she said.

The Gleaner

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As prices fall… BOJ predicts oil price rise in early 2016

November 25, 2015 Webmaster

WEST Texas intermediate benchmark pricing for crude was a low of US$42.63 per barrel yesterday and Wall Street analysts continue to predict a further slump into the new year. But the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is convinced otherwise.

The bank said in its latest quarterly monetary policy report (QMPR) that prices of international commodities, particularly crude oil, are projected to reflect some modest increases, starting in the December 2015 quarter, contributing to an increase in domestic inflation over the near term; a consequence of gradual improvement in global demand conditions as well as a reduction in shale production by the United States of America.

The BOJ indicates that it expects inflation to pick up in both the December 2015 and March 2016 quarters to end fiscal FY2015/16 within the target range of 5.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent, a forecast mainly based on a projected surge in food and oil prices.

Price declines in electricity and fuel resulted in deflation in energy and transport for the September 2015 quarter, largely reflecting the impact of the reduction in crude oil prices.

Headline inflation at the end of the September quarter fell to 1.8 per cent compared to 4.4 per cent at the end of the preceding quarter.

“The reduction largely reflected declines in the cost associated with energy and transport, while agriculture and processed foods prices increased at a slower pace,” the BOJ stated.

However, the BOJ thinks oil price increases will change the trajectory. It is the bank’s assessment that there will be an uptick in the price of crude oil in the last quarter of the fiscal year.

Additionally, year-end inflation will also be affected by prices of domestic agricultural commodities which the bank expects to increase in December due to the recent dry conditions.

Meanwhile, the bank is also predicting that inflation from agricultural commodities will be reduced in the latter part of the December 2015 quarter as drought conditions improve with concurrent price reversals in the March 2016 quarter.

Jamaica Observer

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CaPRI to present country report on renewable energy options in Barbados

November 2, 2015 Webmaster

CO-EXECUTIVE director of The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), Dr Christopher Tufton, will this week travel to Barbados to chair a workshop on Barbados’ country report on renewable energy options at the Caribbean Development Bank Conference Centre in St Michael.

With funding from the European Union (EU) under its Energy Facility II programme, CaPRI has been implementing the ‘Frameworks, Policies and Instruments for Mobilising Renewable Energy in the Caribbean’ project over the past two and a half years.

The overall objective of the project is to empower both the public and private sectors and other energy consumers in the Caribbean to make informed decisions on renewable energy investments, and to provide input to policymaking in order to create an enabling environment to accelerate such investment.

The workshop will present the country report which included analyses of renewable energy technology options as well as a number of tools aimed at the public and private sector, including:

*Technology assessment tool — an online calculator which will enable Caribbean businesses and energy consumers to size and cost renewable energy systems to meet their energy needs;

* Renewable energy financing database — a searchable database of local and international financing schemes to allow energy consumers, businesses and project developers to identify appropriate financing for their renewable energy projects, large and small;

* Policies and incentives database — a complete database of incentives available for renewable energy investments in the Caribbean;

*Cost benefit analysis tool.

According to Tufton, the workshop will also include a practical session using the cost benefit tool, and an opportunity for participants to provide feedback on its usefulness. So far CaPRI has presented country reports in Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and Jamaica with Barbados and Guyana left.

This CaPRI EU programme is valued at approximately 500,000 Euros over four years and represents the most in-depth database on renewable energy in the Caribbean.

CaPRI is hopeful that this database will be used by policymakers, the private sector and the general public to increase the use of renewables in the region, Tufton said.

The Observer

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