Yesterday, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) signed an agreement to purchase wind energy from BMR Jamaica Wind Limited over a period of 20 years.

Under the terms of the agreement, the JPS also has the option to purchase 20 per cent interest in the project.

BMR Jamaica Wind is investing US$90 million in the project and the JPS says it has supported the venture by providing technical advice and vital wind data, from its own Munro Wind Farm.

According to the JPS, the project is a significant milestone in Jamaica’s energy security and diversification programme, and represents another important step toward reducing the cost of electricity.

Construction of the 34 megawatt wind farm will see 11 turbines being erected near Malvern, St Elizabeth, in proximity to the JPS Munro Wind Farm.

The JPS says the new wind farm is expected to save Jamaica 250,000 to 300,000 barrels of imported oil each year, or up to six million barrels of oil over the 20-year term of the agreement.

The project is also expected to create 90 to 120 new jobs during the construction, phase which begins in August 2014.

Commissioning is scheduled for September next year.

Jamaica Gleaner

The Jamaica Solar Energy Association says there is need for critical evaluation of the barriers which resulted in what it says was an anaemic response to net billing during the trial period which ended this month.

Net billing allows renewable energy producers to sell excess power to the national grid.

According to the association the net billing policy was a good one and therefore there is need for evaluation of the reasons the offer was not taken up by more players in the renewable energy market.

The association says it has provided substantial recommendations for improvement of the next phase of net billing.

It says these include simplifying the process and improving programme coordination and removing onerous and unnecessary prerequisites for obtaining a standard offer contract with the Jamaica Public Service Company.

The solar energy association says the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) should increase the generation capacity, especially for commercial entities and reduce the cost barriers.

The association is urging the OUR to implement these recommendations within the next few months.

Meanwhile, the association says commercial enterprises also await the implementation of power wheeling.

It is calling for the inclusion of renewables in this initiative.

Jamaica Gleaner;

Solar panels

The Jamaica Solar Energy Association is raising concern that there has been no word lately from the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) about the procurement for the supply of 115 megawatts of power from renewable energy sources.

The association says it is calling for probity, transparency and urgency in relation to the renewable energy project in light of the problems currently facing the 381 megawatt project.

The OUR has already named three bidders for the supply of 78 megawatts of that power but the association says the regulator has been silent on the next steps since March.

The association is calling for the OUR to ensure due diligence is observed in relation to the 115 megawatt procurement in light of the problems now plaguing the 381 megawatt project.

The Government last week announced that it is looking to revoke the licence issued to Energy World International after it failed to post its performance bond in relation to the project.

EWI has pointed to the refusal by the Inter-American Development Bank to provide funding for the project as one of the reasons it failed to meet the bond deadline.

The IDB is reportedly withholding its support because of alleged procurement breaches in the inclusion of EWI in the bidding process which were highlighted by the Office of the Contractor General.

Now the solar energy association is demanding that the OUR exercise due diligence to determine the technical competence and financial ability of the three bidders for the 115 megawatts project to begin construction in August 2014 for commissioning by July 2016.

The association is demanding that the OUR make public the licences issued for the supply of the renewable energy generation capacity in the same way that the licence to EWI was published.

Meanwhile, the association says the OUR had committed to issuing a new request for proposals for the remaining 37 megawatts of energy for the project in early 2014, but is yet to do so.

It says it is anxiously awaiting the start of the bidding process for those 37 megawatts.

Jamaica Gleaner;

 

Chris Bicknell, CEO of Tank-Weld Group.

A second effort at firing up the natural gas project seemed headed to derailment at midweek, but the candidate that would benefit from the collapse is keeping silent on its own readiness to step in.

A licence was issued to Energy World International to build a 381 MW LNG-fired plant on April 14, but the company has failed to secure backing for the project from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which indicated that it viewed the procurement process that selected EWI as flawed.

EWI missed the payment window for its performance bond of US$36.85m, which was due to the Office of Utilities Regulation on April 24, but said it had made the payment on Wednesday. The company previously paid US$7.37m as a bid bond on its US$737m project. It still needs to tie down financing for the full project.

The next candidate in line to do a deal with the OUR is Energise Jamaica, a consortium led by Tank Weld Group and Musson Jamaica.

“Our Energise group has decided not to comment at this time. We want to see how the government is going to play this out. So we have decided to wait on the Government’s next move in this process.” said Tank Weld CEO Chris Bicknell on Wednesday.

HIGHER PRICE

Energise’s bid would deliver electricity to the grid at a more expensive price, US$0.1827. EWI’s project is predicated on pricing of US$0.1288. The first candidate, which failed to pay over its bond and lost out on the deal, Azurest-Cambridge, had proposed to deliver power at US$0.1390.

The OUR said last October that Energise proposes to run its plant initially on heavy fuel oil at a price of US$0.2154 for one to two years after which it expects to switch to natural gas.

Technically, Azurest’s second bid option, a heavy-fuel oil plant, also beat out Energise’s natural gas price, but it’s unclear whether the OUR is obliged to offer the American company another shot at a deal. A request for clarification was unanswered up to press time.

Energise is yet to disclose its expected sourcing of natural gas and how it will finance its project. Bicknell declined to answer those questions Wednesday as the EWI issue continued to play itself out.

Energise said previously that it has mobilised equity backers willing to put up capital in excess of US$60 million, and that its project would lead to 25 per cent savings on electricity costs.

Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell made it clear on Tuesday that he was willing to go to the mat for EWI and would seek to sway the IDB’s decision to a yes on financing for the Hong Kong-based but Australian-connected firm.

The licence issued to EWI on April 14 was amended to remove a stipulation that the Energy Minister could take over the project during the construction phase if work on the plant had stopped for more than two days, but it maintains aspects of the ‘step-in’ or takeover provisions after the plant has been commissioned. These provisions allow the minister to acquire the plant if it is idle for more than 180 days but Jamaica would have to compensate EWI 75 per cent of the estimated present value of the business, based on its current and future cash flows projected out for 15 years.

The initial compensation in the April 4 version of the licence was 50 per cent.

How the OUR first ranked the LNG bids:

Rank Bidder Bid Price Fuel Type

1 Azurest-Cambridge 13.90 US c/kWh Natural gas

2 EWI 14.56 US c/kWhNatural gas

3 Azurest-Cambridge 16.35 US c/kWh Heavy fuel oil

4 Energise 18.27 US c/kWh Natural gas

5 Optimal 18.30 US c/kWh Natural gas

6 Energise 21.54 US c/kWh Heavy fuel oil

EWI later revised its price down to 12.88 US cents/kWh.

Jamaica Gleaner;

The latest measurements confirm that the world’s oil and natural gas supplies are running out too fast. At some time between 2010 and 2020 the world’s supply of oil and gas will fall below the level required to meet international demand.

The US government is aware that we are about to endure a disastrous international energy shortage. According to Dr James McKenzie, a senior member of the climate change programme at the World Resources Institute in Washington, USA: “That’s why we went to war in Iraq.”

We always knew the world’s oil reserves would run out eventually. The oil was formed by natural geological processes which occurred over millions of years. Oil consumption presently exceeds 25 billion barrels a year and demand continues to spiral upward, out of control. The outcome is inevitable.

In the 21st Century we rely on oil (petrol) and gas for transport – cars, lorries, ships, aircraft – as well as electrical power. We cannot survive without oil and gas, and when the supply runs out the great engine of Western civilization will finally grind to a halt. We are heading for an event that will be remembered as one of the great disasters of human history, and life is going to get harder for everybody as the day of reckoning draws nearer.

In the years ahead, wars will be fought over oil and fuel as the oil-dependent superpowers struggle in vein to preserve our unsustainable way of life. We are entering a period of great change and there are be difficult times ahead. The process has already begun. Students of prophecy will be familiar with certain relevant verses from Christian scripture concerning the signs of the end times (Matt. 24.8; Mk 13.8, Rom. 8.22; Rev. 12.03, 21.1-4). As it was translated in 1961 in the New English Bible: “With these things, the birth pangs of the new age begin” (Mt.24:8; Mk.13:8). Whether you are religious or secular, you should be aware that the tide of history is turning.

In North America, where we use far more oil than anywhere else on Earth, the vast majority (71%) of electrical power generation is entirely dependent on fossil fuels – coal (52%), gas (16%), and oil (3%). The world’s natural gas is running out along with the oil, and the coal supply is not unlimited either. Nuclear energy contributes only one-fifth to the US power network, and 7% of power is hydroelectric. Only 2% of US electricity production is from renewable sources. As we continue to burning up the world’s dwindling fossil energy sources at a terrifying rate, we simultaneously unleash catastrophic damage to the natural environment.

The Insider recently reported a wave of four major electrical power outages which struck the US; then the UK; followed by Denmark and Sweden; and then Italy, Switzerland, Austria and France. The effects only lasted a few hours, but each case was the biggest power failure in the history of the affected country. These massive power cuts were separated by a matter of days. The governments were only practicing this time. This is just the beginning.

It would be prudent to pursue alternative energy sources before it is too late, but the oil corporations will never allow this to happen. So important is oil as a resource that it brings great wealth and power to those who control it. Consequently, our corrupt politicians, whose power is lavishly funded with oil money, prefer to serve the short-term interests of greedy oil executives than the long-term interests of ordinary people like you. But as long as we have food in our bellies and entertainment to keep us busy, why should we care? Thus, it is the immorality and indifference of our species that ultimately leads to our own demise.

Nothing lasts forever. Like all the great civilizations in the past, ours has a limited life-span. A few years from now the Westernized world will reach the point where there is no longer enough fuel to sustain civilization in its present form. This will literally be the end of civilization as we know it.

The Insider;

IN THE face of Energy World International’s (EWI) placement of its US$7-million security bond on the 360-megawatt power plant deal, it is opportune for the Government to take a hard look at the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) and take some serious decisions about the place. And they must be quick about it.

The first order of business is to find an obviously strong, competent and independent-minded head for the place, with a clear understanding that part of his or her mandate is cleaning shop, even as it gets on with the job of completing the energy project.

Putting this process in train lies squarely with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. It is her obligation, under the OUR Act, to recommend the candidate for the post of director general of the regulatory body to the governor general. If, as we suspect, it was the case in the past that prime ministers allowed line ministers to effectively name the nominee, we recommend that Mrs Simpson Miller break with practice.

For ceding that responsibility, at this time, to Phillip Paulwell, would be to handicap the appointee, given the collapse of confidence in Mr Paulwell’s mining and energy ministry to get anything right, given the mess that has been made of the power plant issue.

To be fair, that is not all Mr Paulwell’s fault. Much, and perhaps most, of the blame rests with the OUR.

A CLUMSY HANDLING OF THE MATTER

That Jamaican consumers pay an unaffordable economic rent for electricity, which at US$0.42 per kilowatt-hour is among the highest in the region, is well known. Understand that it makes our firms uncompetitive, which, in turn, constrains economic growth.

Yet the OUR, which has been governing the responsibility for procurement of newer, and supposedly cheaper, generating capacity, has, at best, and perhaps charitably, been clumsy and bungling in its several attempts at the process. Its latest was the worse.

Delivering cheaper energy to Jamaica, which would be good for the economy, also coincides with Mr Paulwell’s political interest/ambition. It is understandable that when EWI declared an interest in Jamaica, with an apparently attractive proposal, that he would be keen to have that considered, notwithstanding that it was after the OUR’s initial deadline for unsolicited offers/expressions of interest.

THE OUR NEEDS A FIX

The response of those already engaged in the process, who might have felt they were in the most advantageous positions, was entirely predictable. The claim that the goalpost was being shifted was obvious.

But worse than Mr Paulwell was the OUR. The agency disagrees with the Office of the Contractor General that it breached the procurement rules; that EWI’s proposal should not have been entertained; and that if it was to be considered, the initial request for proposal abandoned and the process started anew. Beyond the technical issues of the procurement rules is the weak, or failed communication strategy on this issue, which has left the public uneasy about the basis of its decision.

The OUR is a critical regulatory agency. But it is need for an urgent fix. That is why we feel that a public-private sector oversight group should be part of the strategy for this energy project.

Mobile Jamaica Gleaner;

The cost of electricity has risen to a new record this month on continued slide in the value of the dollar and higher cost of fuel.

Higher fuel and IPP charges have pushed the cost of electricity up by 3.5 per cent this month after a four per cent increase in September. Together both increases mean the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity is at its highest level ever for households.

RJR News;

Up to yesterday, there was still no word from the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) on the security bond from the three selected preferred bidders for the 115 megawatts of electricity-generation project using renewable energy-based power-generation facilities on a build, own and operate basis.

On October 1, the OUR announced that it had selected three companies which would supply 78 megawatts of the required amount. They had until this past Tuesday to provide the OUR with the applicable proposal security.

The named preferred bidders were Blue Mountain Renewables LLC, to supply 34 megawatts of capacity from wind power at Munro in St Elizabeth; Wigton Windfarm Limited, to supply 24 megawatts of capacity from wind power at Rose Hill, Manchester; and WRB Enterprises Inc, to supply 20 megawatts of capacity from Solar PV through facilities in Content Village, Clarendon.

The proposed delivery price to the national grid for these projects ranged from US$0.1290 to US$0.1880.

Jamaica Gleaner;

Dominica is implementing a US$34-million solar street-light project with assistance from China, Public Works Minister Rayburn Blackmore has said.

He said the 33-month project would involve installation of 4,851 solar street lights across the country, and that Beijing would be providing 2,500 of those lights.

“The prime minister has been able to use his good office to seek funding and assistance from The People’s Republic of China. We are in the process of launching a comprehensive national street lighting project that will seek to bring solar lights to all our main roads in Dominica, including urban areas,” he said.

Blackmore said the project would be executed in separate phases.

“What we intend to do is first of all address our main roads. During the first phase, we intend to install 2,500 solar street lights. That will significantly improve the security and safety of our roads for pedestrians and persons who use the road,” he added.

Jamaica Gleaner;

Energy audits boast a multitude of benefits: in addition to providing a roadmap for greater energy efficiency, they help you understand how your house works.

An energy audit is a fundamental first step toward reducing utility bills in a big way. By analyzing a building’s major components including the building envelope, combustion equipment, chimneys, attics, crawlspaces and more, as well as the interrelationship of these various components, a comprehensive energy audit provides a big picture overview of how a building works.

This is effective for reducing utility bills, because sources or air leakage and heat transmission are located with precision so they can be eradicated cost-effectively.

But this isn’t the only benefit of a comprehensive energy audit. Additionally, an audit puts your home, residential property or commercial property, or business on the path to:

Greater Comfort.

Energy efficiency and comfort go hand in hand. Improving your building envelope by air sealing and increasing insulation; installing window films and shades and radiant barriers, and high efficiency heating and cooling systems means a more comfortable home for a lower operating cost. Improving the performance of your home with efficiency upgrades also means more evenly distributed heat throughout the home — so you don’t have to worry about drafts, or rooms that are hot or cold.

Improved Indoor Air Quality.

Poor indoor air quality can contribute to allergies, asthma, and more serious long term health problems. Caused by everything from pet dander to mold spores, from cigarette smoke to toxins from common building products, and compounded by insufficient ventilation, poor indoor air quality presents a potentially serious health threat. During a whole house energy audit, building science experts analyze your home’s ventilation to assess whether it’s adequate — and what can be done to increase the amount of fresh air entering your home, and improve your home’s air quality for you and your family.

Better Health & Safety.

Related to indoor air quality is the larger issue of health and safety in the home. Could your combustion equipment be backdrafting? Does your home have radon? Are dangerous carbon monoxide fumes from your attached garage entering your home through air leaks? These are all questions that a qualified whole-house energy auditor like those on the 1st Choice Energy team are trained to answer.

Greater Building Durability.

One of the core principles of the whole-house building science approach to energy efficiency is to promote building longevity and durability. After all, a building is neither energy efficient nor cost-effective if it’s constructed poorly and fails before its time. By controlling moisture infiltration from the outside of the home by improving the building envelope, and moisture build-up from the interior of the building by air sealing the building envelope and adding adequate ventilation and moisture control strategies, building science best practices can ensure greater durability. The audit is the first step in this process.

Higher Resale Value.

In an era of increasing energy prices, volatility in the energy markets and increasing concern about man-made climate change and the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to it, energy efficient buildings are enjoying an increased demand in the otherwise slouching housing market. Investing in energy efficiency improvements will ensure that your home fetches a higher resale value down the road.

First Choice Energy;