Kelly Tomblin Archives - Page 2 of 5

Nothing To Hide – JPS Boss Promises Transparency In Islandwide Blackout Investigations

August 29, 2016 Webmaster

As investigations continue into the power outage that blanketed the entire island on Saturday evening, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) Kelly Tomblin has promised to be open and transparent with the public about the findings of the probe.

“The only thing I know for sure is that the process was not followed one hundred per cent. I don’t know completely why that resulted in a system-wide outage. That is what my team is working on today, and that is what we are going to continue to talk to the press about. We have nothing to hide,” she said in an interview with The Gleaner yesterday.

Jamaica’s sole power distribution company said the outage was caused by a “procedural error, which resulted in a number of generating units going off-line simultaneously”.

In a release to the media, the electricity supplier said it has started its investigations and would provide further details on the cause of the outage today.

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Dr Andrew Wheatley was swift in expressing displeasure with JPS because of the blackout.

“Let me categorically state that I am not at all happy with this latest incident and I find the inconvenience to the people of Jamaica and the many businesses affected totally unacceptable,” he said in a statement.

CATASTROPHIC FAILURE

Arguing that “islandwide power outages of this nature should not occur as there ought to be processes, procedures, and adequate redundancies in the grid to mitigate such a cascading set of events that would result in a catastrophic failure of this kind”, Wheatley said that he has requested that JPS submit a preliminary report on the cause of the blackout to his office today and a full report by Thursday.

Tomblin indicated that she was having numerous meetings with her technical team and was in the process of preparing a preliminary report to be submitted to Wheatley.

The JPS CEO was forthright in shedding light on the nature of the “procedural error”, which is believed to have caused the outage. She explained that the company’s technical team was still working to put together a more fulsome analysis of the outage.

“We know there was an operational error, but that does not explain something else, which will take some time to figure out. It looks as though there was a technical procedure done on the Hunts Bay station that was not completed one hundred per cent according to process, but that should not have resulted in the collapse of the system, so we have to look to see if it’s a design or engineering issue, but I don’t want to jump the gun and give inaccurate information at this stage,” she said.

In April, the country was also plunged into an islandwide power blackout. The light and power company later said that that outage was caused by problems because of work that was being done on two major power lines in the Three Miles area of Kingston.

Gleaner

Alternative Energy JPS LNG News

NEPA Releases Hold On LNG Project After Weekend Stop Order

July 20, 2016 Webmaster

New Fortress Energy was issued at the weekend with a stop order by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) on pipe-laying works to link its LNG terminal to the Jamaica Public Service Company’s (JPS) Bogue plant in Montego Bay.

Representatives of the company, following a meeting with NEPA Tuesday morning, managed to secure a new permit allowing work to continue on the project, which has an end-of-summer deadline to start supplying gas to JPS.

New Fortress, a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group LLC, is currently laying the pipelines from the port to the 120MW Bogue plant, but has faced setbacks getting landowners to allow the pipes to pass through their property.

“It’s a minor issue, actually. We had some property owners that were being difficult about their rights of way. So Fortress had taken a different route, which wasn’t permitted. They had to go back to get the permit just for the switch in the route,” JPS boss Kelly Tomblin told Gleaner Business.

She said, initially, all landowners were in agreement with the route “but then a property owner changed their mind”.

New Fortress had gone to NEPA for approval of the new route, but “NEPA hadn’t approved it yet. They did so today (Tuesday),” Tomblin said, while conceding that work on the project had continued.

Officials from NEPA visited the site at the weekend to enforce a stop order.

Tomblin said the project or its timelines won’t suffer any adverse fallout from the work stoppage, which roughly spanned two working days.

“I’m sure they can make that up,” she said.

New Fortress said as much last night, after affirming “utmost respect” for planning rules.

“We have received official notice that work can continue on our pipeline installation, subject to our permit conditions,” said New Fortress spokesman Jake Suski.

“We have the utmost respect for the rules and process and will continue to take direction from NEPA around permit issues. At this time, we don’t anticipate any delays as a result of these conversations around the pipeline installation,” he said.

The LNG project is already running about five months behind its original schedule. Gas delivery should have begun in April.

“The point is, we want to get gas to this power plant very quickly. So Fortress was moving very quickly. But we have to make sure we work very closely with the regulator and I think Fortress understands that now,” said Tomblin.

tameka.gordon@gleanerjm.com

The Gleaner

Alternative Energy Crude Oil JPS LNG News Renewable Energy

JPS Unfazed By LNG Shipper’s Losses

July 1, 2016 Webmaster

Tomblin

The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), managers of the national electricity grid expects Golar LNG to ship liquefied natural gas to Jamaica, despite its heavy losses.

Golar is contracted to New Fortress Energy (NFE), the latter being JPS’s selected partner to develop and supply natural gas to the Jamaican utility. New Fortress is five months behind schedule with deliveries.

JPS President and Chief Executive Officer Kelly Tomblin said that even in the worst-case scenario, the power utility remains protected.

“Golar is a public company with a market cap of about US$1.5 billion and a balance sheet with over US$4 billion of assets. It’s been in business since 1946 and is widely followed by investors all over the world,” said Tomblin in a response to Gleaner queries.

“New Fortress Energy has indicated to me that they have been a dependable and reliable partner in preparing to deliver gas to Jamaica. JPS is protected contractually if New Fortress fails to bring gas, as required in the gas supply agreement.”

NFE earlier this year contracted Golar for two years to ship LNG to Jamaica. The first shipments will feed JPS’s plant at Bogue in Montego Bay, which has already been retrofitted to burn gas as well as diesel oil.

In early June, NFE acknowledged Gleaner queries regarding the implications of Golar’s finances, but did not follow through with a response.

NET LOSSES

Golar reported net losses of US$80 million for its first quarter ending March. The loss was mainly because of its US$61.5 million in operating expenses, towering over its US$18.6 million in revenues for the period. Over 12 months, Golar posted a US$197.6-million net loss for financial year 2015 and US$43 million in net losses for 2014.

Last month, CEO Gary Smith resigned, and its former CEO, Oscar Spieler, retook control of the company amid restructuring of the operations.

Tomblin expects the LNG projects at Bogue and, later, at Old Harbour, along with additional capacity from renewable plants, to reduce the power utility’s reliance on heavy oil from 95 per cent to 50 per cent in the medium term.

steven.jackson@gleanerjm.com

The Gleaner

Crude Oil Electricity JPS LNG

Light bills to go up this month

June 14, 2016 Webmaster

JAMAICA Public Service (JPS) customers will be asked to pay more for their electricity this month — partly due to the recent increase in the Special Consumption tax (SCT) on heavy fuel oil (HFO), the light and power company advised yesterday.

The company said the spike is also due to an increase in the cost of the fuel used for electricity generation, caused by rising oil prices on the international market, and the continued devaluation of the Jamaican dollar.

“This is definitely not the best news for us at JPS, or for our customers,” JPS President and CEO Kelly Tomblin said in a release.

The Government last month introduced the $7 per litre increase as part of the revenue package to help finance its $580-billion 2015/16 Budget, but Finance Minister Audley Shaw, at the time, assured the panicking public that the tax would only apply to fuel at the pumps.

“This tax doesn’t apply to JPS at all. It is only related to SCT for fuel for road transport,” Shaw said at a post-budget press conference. The SCT is expected to yield $6.4 billion for the Government’s coffers.

In announcing the 12.8 per cent increase yesterday, the JPS urged consumers to “conserve on their electricity usage, as the upward trend in oil prices has resulted in an increase in the cost of electricity”.

“The overall increase will result in residential customers paying US$0.21 per kWh on average for electricity in June, compared to US$0.19 in May. This means that the average residential customer using 165kWh of electricity for the month, will see a $500 increase in his or her June bill, which will move from $3,875 in May to approximately $4,372 this month,” the JPS said.

The JPS president stressed that, despite the increase, electricity bills are still 20 per cent lower than they were in June 2015 when customers were paying US0.27 per kWh. The company argued that Jamaica continues to enjoy one of the lowest electricity rates in the region, behind Belize and Trinidad.

Reacting to the news, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) President William Mahfood reiterated that the sector had recognised from the outset that the imposition of the tax on the HFO and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) would have an incremental increase in the cost of electricity of five per cent.

“As far as the price of oil goes, this is a matter that is beyond our control (but) we still feel there should be some amount of hedge put in place to mitigate against future increases in the price of oil,” he remarked, noting that the sector is in full support of the phasing out of older power plants which rely on HFO and diesel.

He said that, while the phasing out of JPS’ 190-megawatt facility at Old Harbour will take a couple more years, eventually more plants will convert to LNG.

Mahfood said also that, like rising oil prices, the devaluation of the dollar against the US currency is out of Jamaica’s hands and can only be militated against by economic growth.

The Observer

Electricity JPS News

JPS wants big jump in annual tariff adjustment 10% increase!

May 24, 2016 Webmaster

Kelly Tomblin

Light and power company Jamaica Public Service (JPS) has asked the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) to approve an increase in its annual revenue target to $45.07 billion, up from a base year target of $40.6 billion, or a jump of 9.53 per cent.

“This increase includes fluctuations in the value of the Jamaican dollar against the United States dollar and the inflation in the cost of providing electricity products and services,” the Our said in a press statement.

The OUR is currently reviewing the JPS’s submission for its annual tariff adjustment for 2016. The request for tariff review was made on May 4, 2016, and the OUR is expected to complete its review and issue its determination by July 3, 2016, the regulator said.

“The adjustment will be the first under the provisions of the new Electricity Licence, 2016. On January 27, 2016, a modified licence was issued by the Government of Jamaica to JPS. The provisions of the new licence fundamentally changed the regulatory framework and the methodology for the calculation of the tariff,” the statement said.

If granted, the JPS’s submission for an adjustment, which is in keeping with the provisions of the Electricity Licence 2016, that allows it to make annual filings to the OUR, will require the OUR to apply the amended provisions of the licence in respect of such matters as adding a surcharge to the revenue requirement.

This includes a surcharge from foreign exchange, interest rate and revenue. JPS is proposing to add on $526.6 million which represents the foreign exchange and interest surcharge. As a result of the amendments to the licence, JPS is now allowed to include the total net interest expense or income which is paid or earned in the revenue requirement.

Additionally, the Kelly Tomblin-led JPS is now entitled to an adjustment on its revenue requirement for any foreign exchange loss which it may incur in the prior year in relation to working capital and debt service driven by Jamaican to US dollar exchange results.

The company is also entitled to adjustments to the 2014/2015 approved prepaid rates for the Residential Rate 10 and Commercial Rate 20 customers, and to introduce interests rates on outstanding balances owed by commercial and the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is reviewing the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) submission for its annual tariff adjustment for 2016. The request for tariff review was made on May 4, 2016, and the OUR is expected to complete its review and issue its determination within 60 days, that is, by July 3, 2016.

The Observer

Electricity Government JPS News

Blackout – Widespread Outage Leaves Thousands In The Dark

April 18, 2016 Webmaster

Winsome Callum

Up to late last night, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) was yet to determine what caused a “fairly widespread” power outage that left tens of thousands in darkness.

Reports of the outage began to emerge shortly after seven o’clock from Manchester, Hanover, St Mary, Kingston, St Andrew, Portland, St Catherine, Trelawny, St James, Clarendon, and Westmoreland.

The JPS issued a statement almost an hour later, from its Twitter account, advising that “the problem seems to be fairly widespread as customers in several parishes have been affected”.

It added: “We are not able at this point to say what caused the problem or how soon we’ll have everybody back on, but power has already been restored to some areas.”

Winsome Callum, director, corporate communications at JPS, later explained that “a number of generating units went offline simultaneously, resulting in a fairly widespread outage affecting customers in several parishes.

“We are not able at this point to say what caused the units to go offline or how soon we’ll have everyone back,” she added.

Callum explained that the restoration “could take a while because of the pretty involved process of ramping up units before energising the lines”.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley said he had been in contact with the Kelly Tomblin, president and chief executive of JPS, about the situation.

“I’m sure that I will be getting a report on the matter,” Wheatley told The Gleaner.

Last month, the light and power company advised that customers could experience outages between April and May as the company moves to convert its operations at the Bogue power station in St James to natural gas.

The Gleaner

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Jamaica After Obama: Obama Visit Improved Energy Prospects For Jamaica

April 6, 2016 Webmaster

Kelly Tomblin, president and chief executive officer of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), is arguing that the visit of United States President Barack Obama to Jamaica last year has improved the energy prospects for the island.

Tomblin, one of the participants in a Gleaner project ahead of Friday’s one-year anniversary of Obama’s visit, said: “Obama’s visit gave Jamaica greater strength in gas negotiations with gas suppliers by signalling support for US gas to Jamaica, thus increasing competition and the number of available suppliers and supporting greater optimisation of Jamaica’s renewable resource.”

During his two-day visit to the island, Obama announced the formation of an energy fund to finance clean-energy projects in the region. He made the announcement at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-US Summit.

“Caribbean countries have one of the highest energy costs in the world. Today, we are announcing new partnerships and a new fund to mobilise private-sector projects in clean energy for the Caribbean and Central America,” he said at the conclusion of the summit.

OPPORTUNITIES NEEDED

The energy fund now forms part of the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative, which aims to reduce the region’s reliance on fossil fuels.

According to Tomblin: “Obama’s visit created more opportunities throughout the energy sector by voicing confidence in Jamaica’s landscape and supporting US investment in Jamaica’s energy sector.”

She called for Jamaica to act fast in capitalising on the opportunities created in the energy sector by the initiatives announced by Obama.

“The only threat exposed during Obama’s visit was the truth that if we don’t act fast, other Caribbean countries will take advantage of the new open door in the energy market and secure the hub position,” she said.

In giving further reflections on the anniversary of the visit, Tomblin highlighted the need for Jamaica to position itself as the hub for the provision of gasolene as a cheaper source of energy.

“Let’s make sure we step fully into this moment he opened up by driving this gas-procurement process through quickly and position Jamaica as an obvious hub for that product which will be key for our neighbours to meet their overall environmental commitments,” she said.

“We cannot afford bureaucracy now.”

Gleaner

Electricity Government JPS

JPS writes off $100m of electricity bills

February 8, 2016 Webmaster

Kelly Tomblin, president and CEO of JPS.

Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) said it wrote off $100 million in debt owed by residential and commercial customers for electricity under its year-end amnesty programme.

It offered customers the opportunity to start the new year at least partially debt free.

The power utility also said it continues to work with the Government, through the Ministry of Finance, to ensure payment for street lights on a timely basis.

In introducing the amnesty, which ran from November to December 2015, JPS said it had identified critical cases where some of its customers’ debts to the light and power provider had accumulated so significantly over time that they had been classified as bad debt.

However, for customers who wanted to regularise their accounts and in some cases restore their electricity, JPS gave residential rate 10 and commercial rate 20 customers an opportunity to negotiate up to 70 per cent debt forgiveness.

Persons qualified to apply were those owing in excess of $50,000 at August 2015 and had their service disconnected; as well as residential and small commercial customers who owed more than $100,000 up to August, but whose accounts were still active.

Last Friday, JPS President and Chief Executive Officer Kelly Tomblin, addressing a media briefing at the company’s offices in New Kingston, said more than 1,000 account holders benefited from the amnesty.

STREET LIGHT REPAIRS ONGOING

As for the issue of defective street lights, Tomblin said repairs were ongoing, while acknowledging that the utility got daily complaints.

JPS has about 100,000 street lights and last year the company replaced 27,700 of them, an average of 514 per week.

“We are replacing street lights, hundreds and hundreds every week, so it’s not that JPS isn’t aware…”, she said.

Against that background, Tomblin said: “There are two things that are going on that we have to fix.

“We are working with the Government right now to find a way for us to get paid more promptly,” she said. “I have a commitment by the minister of finance. We work with him all the time. We all know that we have a lot of different obligations and a lot of different challenges to meet and we do know today that we are working on solutions to run our street lights on, for instance, LED.”

At the same time, she said the company has to be careful how much it invests in the current solution “if we are going to have this three to four year plan to replace them.”

She acknowledged the issue is, for some, one of security, but said the street light problem is compounded by theft.

“With the level of electricity theft, we will never have first-class street lights … we cannot have street lights operating if we have a couple of hundred people stealing,” the utility boss said.

JPS is manager of the national grid and monopoly distributor of electricity supplies. The utility collects around $100 billion per year in billings.

The Gleaner

Electricity JPS News Oil

JPS Signs MOU With Chinese Based Company For 190 MW Plant

January 4, 2016 Webmaster

The Jamaica Public Service has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a China-based energy company to build the 190 MW Old Harbour Bay Power Station.

The Chinese company will replace the Spanish firm Abengoa, which filed for protection from creditors a few days after it was named as the preferred bidder for the construction of the power plant.

President and Chief Executive Office of JPS, Kelly Tomblin has said that the name of the company cannot be released due to confidentiality agreements, but that the company was well known in China and within the energy sector.

“JPS, given its continuing concerns for the financial viability and strength of Abengoa and their inability to meet our financial requirements, has moved to enter into an MOU agreement with a Chinese EPC provider,” she told The Gleaner.

Meeting With ESET

She pointed out that the name of the firm and the terms of the deal will be made public once discussions are complete.

Tomblin also indicated that JPS will be meeting with the Energy Sector Enterprise Team (ESET) next week Monday to discuss the new bidder and the finer details of a possible deal between both parties.

“We plan to meet with ESET on Monday afternoon to go through final details, and we will disclose more after that meeting.”

The JPS moved to assure stakeholders that the 190 MW project remains on track for the plant’s commissioning in 2018.

JPS says it was undaunted by the financial woes being faced by Abengoa and would be looking at alternatives.

“Abengoa was selected based on its wide-ranging and impressive technical expertise. The firm has constructed several combined cycle power plants around the world, and is also well known for its construction of renewable energy power plants. JPS also had the understanding that Abengoa’s financiers were committed to the company for the long term,” the company said in a press release.

The Gleaner

Electricity JPS News

JPS To Offer Prepaid Meters Islandwide Next Year

December 18, 2015 Webmaster

A Jamaica Public Service technician at work seeking to regularize electricity supply in Denham Town, Kingston.

Utility provider Jamaica Public Service (JPS) will offer prepaid service in all parishes next year, but expects power consumption to dip slightly in the process.

The prepaid service will become available to all residential customers who opt for it, but will not initially be offered to commercial customers.

“By the end of 2016, we will offer prepaid meters to all parishes,” JPS President Kelly Tomblin told the Financial Gleaner in a telephone interview this week. “That’s our goal – to focus on residential customers.”

She explained that the service will eventually launch an app that will allow persons to top-up their accounts on their telephones or other devices.

Expectations of reduced revenues

Tomlin said the prepaid meter service is expected to reduce total revenues to JPS because of an expected reduction in consumption. However, the savings should give customers more disposable income to spend or save.

“It will help to grow the economy because if you use less (energy), then you have more money to spend, which helps the economy,” Tomblin said.

JPS introduced a prepaid electricity service as an option as part of the fulfilment of its pledge to find alternative energy solutions for all Jamaicans.

“It is intended for those Jamaicans who have asked us for a payment option that can better assist them in predicting and budgeting for their electricity bills. Although new to Jamaica, prepaid electricity is a standard service product offered by many electric utilities the world over for decades,” JPS said in response to Financial Gleaner queries.

To introduce the service, JPS opted to do a limited pilot of the programme across Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine, which the company intends to use to tweak the product before a wider roll-out across the island in 2016.

JPS added that the service is currently available to all residential and Rate 20 (general services/small commercial) customers and potential customers across Kingston, St Catherine and St Andrew.

“Prepaid electricity service was never designed, and is not intended, as a tool to fight electricity theft,” the JPS said.” It has, however, proved to be a very effective tool for budget-conscious customers who want more control to tailor their consumption to match how much they have to spend at any given time,” the company added.

JPS made US$23.7 million in 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. The light and power provider said that it requires a new tariff to be approved by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) as prepaid is a new and different service from the normal post-paid payment solution.

“Designing and developing a new tariff for a new utility service can be a complex matter and JPS and the OUR have been in discussions for many months on the subject,” said the JPS communications department. “This involved JPS making submissions to the OUR, showing different forecasts of what we believe the demand for the new service will be over time and the impact this will have on revenues, depending on the rate and structure of the tariff design,” it added.

The Gleaner

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