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Tag: Watt

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Alternative Energy Electricity Energy Saving Government News Solar Energy

Solar Energy Association Wants Info On 115MW Project

May 12, 2014

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;

Electricity Government LNG News

Bicknell Reserves Comment On EWI

May 2, 2014

 

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;

Alternative Energy Electricity Energy Saving Government News Solar Energy

No Word On Bidders For Renewables Project

October 17, 2013

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;

Alternative Energy Electricity Energy Saving Government JPS News Solar Energy

OUR Names Preferred Bidders For 115MW Electricity-Generation Project

October 2, 2013

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has selected three preferred bidders for the supply of up to 115 megawatts of electricity-generation capacity from renewable energy-based power-generation facilities on a build, own, and operate basis.

In a release yesterday, the OUR said from the proposals for energy-only, the evaluation panel recommended three entities as preferred bidders with capacity amounting to 78 megawatts. These comprise two projects offering energy from wind, amounting to 58 megawatts; and one offering solar, amounting to 20 megawatts.

The preferred bidders are 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 from 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.

The preferred bidders have been directed to provide the OUR with the applicable proposal security by October 15.

The OUR said on June 3 that it had received 28 bids from 20 interested entities, which submitted proposals to supply renewable energy electricity generation of greater than 100 kilowatts and up to 115 megawatts to the national grid.

The bids were tendered by both local and international entities, with eight proposals received from local companies. Two proposals were received for wind, one for biomass, and 25 for solar energy.

Jamaica Gleaner;

Alternative Energy Electricity Government News

Jamaica can triple wind energy output

August 23, 2013

Students from Ascot Primary in St Catherine take in a wind turbine during a tour of the Wigton Windfarm in Manchester.

JAMAICA can triple its electricity generated from wind if it uses up its full potential.

A recent wind resource assessment identified four locations suitable for energy development with a combined potential generating capacity of 212 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually (just over five per cent of total consumption).

The study, which assessed 24 prospective sites across the island, revealed that Rose Hill and Top Lincoln in Manchester, Winchester at the foot of the John Crow Mountains in St Thomas, and Kemps Hill in Clarendon could each yield more than 5.3 million kWh a year.

The Winchester site in St Thomas was described as “by far the best wind site surveyed so far”, according to a Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) press statement released yesterday.

PCJ-owned Wigton Windfarm has already picked the Rose Hill site to place a 24 megawatt (MW) wind farm facility, for which it made a submission to the Office of Utilities Regulation’s (OUR) in response to a Request for Proposals for 115 MW of electricity generation capacity from renewable energy sources.

Wigton, which currently produces 97 million kWh from its 38.7 MW of installed capacity, projected that it could generate 63 million kWh from the new site by 2015.

And if the other three sites are developed, total wind energy production in Jamaica could surpass 320 million kWh, after taking Jamaica Public Service Company’s (JPS’s) Munro Wind Farm output into account.

What’s more, when the four addtional sites are exploited, Jamaica stands to reduce national oil consumption by at least 124,000 barrels a year, which cost above $1.2 billion annually.

The wind resource assessment was carried out as part of a wind and solar development programme, which is being implemented by Wigton under a funding agreement between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the PCJ.

“The programme aims to increase Jamaica’s utilisation of renewables by developing photovoltaic and wind power plants to supply the national grid,” said the PCJ release.

The study was based on data collected between November 2011 and January 2012.

“With our current focus on utilising our natural resources to address our energy challenges, both the government and the private sector need credible information to make development and investment decisions about viable energy solutions,” said Earl Barrett, Wigton Windfarm’s general manager.

“The national wind resource assessment will be a great resource to the majority of interests in Jamaica’s energy Sector, but we hope it will be particularly useful for potential investors.”

Jamaica Observer;

Alternative Energy Electricity Government JPS LNG News Oil Solar Energy

Not enough attention to alternative energy

August 13, 2013

JAMAICA continues to agonise over the cost of electricity and the capacity to pay for its oil imports. This agony started with the first oil price shock in 1973 and the degree of agony has varied with the ebb and flow of oil prices. The country is in the throes of trying to reduce the cost of electricity and the oil import bill.

Much attention is now being devoted to finalising the outcome of the bidding process for an additional 360-megawatt (MW) of electricity at the most competitive price. The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is being lambasted over its handling of the selection of the “best” bidder to undertake the construction of a 360MW-generating power plant to provide additional generating capacity to the national grid. The heightened anxiety is also due to the impending changes in the terms of PetroCaribe, an eventuality that should have been anticipated and prepared for.

Meanwhile, the productive sector continues to be stymied by the high cost of electricity and households are impoverished by their electricity bills. Jamaica has a very high price of electricity at 0.26 USD/kW h, which puts the economy at a substantial disadvantage in being internationally competitive. The cost of electricity has contributed to the deindustrialisation of the country, which is most evident in the manufacturing industry.

Jamaica has a peak daily demand of approximately 600 MW, which is provided through a number of steam and combustion gas turbine plants as well as a few small hydro plants. The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has been the main supplier until fairly recently. About 25 per cent of this generating capacity (197 MW) is supplied by non-JPS sources. JPS has an exclusive franchise on transmission, distribution and retail supply. Almost half the generation capacity is over 30 years old and transmission losses are estimated at 23 per cent.

The real problem is not the JPS, the OUR or rapacious oil-exporting countries. It is the absence of a national energy policy aimed at lowering the cost of electricity by a combination of less expensive alternatives to oil and an increased reliance on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

The cost of oil imports during the last 40 years has had little success in prompting the exploration of alternative energy solutions in Jamaica, unlike many other countries for example Germany where solar and wind account for 22 per cent of electricity generation. Wind and solar contributed an insignificant amount of our energy needs despite its potential. In 1995, the PCJ was mandated to develop indigenous renewable energy resources. The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Wigton Wind Farm Limited (Wigton) in 2000. Wigton is the first commercial wind farm. Electricity purchase agreements allow Wigton to sell electricity to JPS. Solar sources have the potential to save on oil imports but not enough homes and business establishments have installed capacity. This is inexplicable because falling prices have made solar power competitive with conventional sources of energy. In the 1970s solar panels converted sunlight into electricity at a cost of US$70 a watt, but today that figure is less than 80 cents.

Jamaica’s energy crisis is an indisputable failure of successive governments of both political parties. The Jamaican people have paid a high price for this incompetence and mismanagement with little prospect for change for the better.

The Jamaica Observer;

Electricity Government JPS LNG News

Power Trinity – Companies Collaborate To Offer Best Bid In The Megawatt Project

August 9, 2013

Kelly Tomblin, CEO of the JPS.

Kelly Tomblin, CEO of the JPS.

AS THE Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) opened bids yesterday for the much-anticipated 360-megawatt electricity-generating project, it was revealed that three major companies have joined forces seeking to become the preferred bidder.

And in a late development yesterday, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) said it will be partnering with three local entities in response to the OUR’s request for proposals for the procurement of new baseload generating capacity.

“While JPS is not submitting an independent bid, we are pleased to partner with other bidders to ensure that new power generation is added to the grid. We also plan to work with our partners to continue to bring much-needed fuel diversity to Jamaica,” said Kelly Tomblin, JPS president and CEO.

In its news release yesterday, the JPS did not specify the companies that it would be partnering with, but only three entities have established a limited-liability company, called Energised Jamaica Limited, to bid for the project. The companies are Amourview Holdings Limited, Tank-Weld, and Mussons Jamaica Limited.

Energised Jamaica Limited is proposing to establish a 360-megawatt dual-fuel selective-cycle reciprocating power-generation plant, using number-six heavy fuel oil and natural gas. If successful, the company will be spending US$586.7 million to set up the plant.

Nigel Davy of Energised Jamaica Limited told

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