News

Come May 1, consumers will be able to apply for a net billing licence from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Phillip Paulwell,has announced.

Speaking at the opening of the Jamaica Power Summit 2012 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston today(April 19), Mr. Paulwell said that both commercial and residential consumers can apply for the licence.

Net billing is provided for under the new energy licence renegotiated with the JPS. Under the provision, small producers of electricity, who are also JPS customers, will now be able to receive remuneration for self-generated electricity that is supplied to the grid.

"You can buy electricity from the utility company at one rate and, if you have excess energy that you generate yourself, you can sell that back to the utility at another rate," Minister Paulwell explained.

He said that by balancing the amount owed for energy used and the amount earned for energy sold, customers may either reduce their bills or earn a credit with the utility.

"The amount that you earn is based on the avoided cost of generation, or rather the cost of fuel, which the JPS didn't have to burn to generate the amount of electricity provided, plus a 15 per cent bonus," he pointed out.

Mr. Paulwell said OUR has advised that at the current price of fuel, the rate available for electricity sold to JPS is between US$0.18 and $0.22 per kilowatt-hour, which is less than the retail price of electricity, can aid in shortening the payback period of a renewable energy investment.

The Minister said he was excited about this development, which has been "a long time coming". He said his administration was pleased to have completed the process that made provision for net billing, which started with the previous government, "but before now the procedures for getting enrolled were not clear and the regulation and standards were not finalised".

The two-day summit was staged by Electric Utility Consultants Inc. (EUCI), a company based in the United-States that produces conferences, seminars, workshops, and courses designed exclusively for the energy industry. The event features multiple sessions that will review traditional, renewable, and alternative power sources available to the island. Industry professionals will discuss energy development issues related to policy and regulation, financing and legal issues, and technology implementation related to low-cost reliability. The discussions will be concerned with the Caribbean region and improving intraregional co-operation.

The event is sponsored by the Caribbean Energy Information System, Scientific Research Council, and Mergermarket. Friday, 20 April 2012 - Report by JIS.

With the increase in oil prices and ultimately electricity bills, for many Jamaicans, solar energy can prove to be an ideal source of power for homes and businesses. To this end, the Government has been encouraging Jamaicans to use renewable energy, such as solar energy, as a means of reducing electricity cost.

Senior Energy Engineer in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), Gerald Lindo, tells JIS News that there are two ways in which to install a solar system in homes or businesses and still reap the benefits.

"You can put the solar panels on your roof, have them connected to some batteries that feed into your local needs at your house or your small business, or you can have a grid-type system to (show) that you are connected to your solar panel and you are connected to the electricity grid as well," Mr. Lindo explains.

He explains that when the solar panels are active and the sun is shining, energy or electricity is being produced from the solar panels. "When there is cloud cover or it's night, you switch back in a dynamic way to the grid, so you are drawing either from the panels or from the grid. That way the grid acts as your back up. The grid style system is a lot cheaper for people to implement generally, because batteries are very expensive and they tend to wear out over time. It is usually more economical, even though you are never truly independent of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS)," Mr. Lindo states.

The Senior Engineer points out that since the user will be tied to the grid, the consumer will be feeding electricity back into the grid and hence a licence will be needed by the consumer. "We want people to use this. We did develop a standard offer contract in September of 2011 that was headed up by the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR), which sets out the regulatory terms by which a person can generate solar energy and really any renewable energy source, but solar is the one we think people will desire the most," Mr. Lindo tells JIS News.

"It allows for people who are generating electricity through renewable means to connect to the grid. Not only can they use the grid as a back-up, but in times when they are generating more electricity than they need, they can sell power to JPS and get some remuneration, and that again will help to defray the cost of putting the system on their roof," he adds.

Mr. Lindo notes that the Bureau of Standards Jamaica is currently working on standards for the interconnections. In the meantime, he says there are a number of ways in which persons can acquire solar energy equipment without having to bear all the cost at once. "One of them is a loan through the National Housing Trust (NHT). The NHT has offered solar loans since 2006 for solar water heaters and in 2008 for photovoltaic panels. We applaud the NHT for what they are doing (but) we think there are ways they can adjust the loan to further optimise it and make it available for people, because the uptake of the loan has perhaps not been as aggressive as one would hope, but we’re working on it to make the loan even more attractive," Mr. Lindo says. He points out that the NHT has the lowest rates and the best terms in the marketplace and “we want more people accessing that, so that they can put some solar panels on their roof." A Jamaica Information Servioce Report.

A group of fourteen students from the IEEE Student Branch of the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), student advisers, and two executives of the Jamaica Section attended the Southeast Conference 2012 in Orlando, Florida, March 15 - 18, 2012. The UTech students excelled in three competitions, placing 1st in the T-Shirt, 3rd in the Open Robotics, and 3rd in the Technical Paper competitions. IEEE Student Branch Chair Kimroy Bailey, received the exemplary Student Branch Award on behalf of UTech for exemplary operations over the year. Of the 52 universities which participated in the conference, UTech attained 2nd place, receiving a total of four awards.

Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), Hon. Phillip Paulwell, said that the government is moving to establish a "super regulatory body" to effectively monitor the telecommunications sector.

The functions of the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA), the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) and the Broadcasting Commission will be merged to create this super agency, he informed. Mr. Paulwell was addressing members of the newly appointed SMA board during a meeting on Friday (March 16) at the agency's head offices downtown Kingston.

"We do have a number of regulatory systems in place, all operating almost at silos, and creating, I believe, unnecessary bureaucracy for the private sector. We have the OUR that is ostensibly the lead regulator in the industry, we have the SMA, and then there is the Broadcasting Commission. What we are going to do, and it's now policy, is to merge and to collapse the functions of the OUR, SMA and the Broadcasting Commission into one super body that is going to be the high-powered ICT (Information Communications and Technology) regulator for all aspects of the infrastructure," the Minister said.

He informed that the Ministry will be spearheading the formulation of the legislation that will make the body a reality. "But, we need now to make sure that as we develop the legislation it doesn't take us two or three years after that for us to have the body up and running," he stated, informing that he has set a timeline of 18 months to complete the process.

Minister Paulwell told the SMA board members that they are now charged with the mandate to make the merge a reality. "I believe you are well appointed to start to fashion the transition that will see the single regulator embraced within the physical structure of SMA. We will come up with a name, very shortly, that will be the name for the three companies," he said.

He acknowledged that the task will not be easy "but, it is now a reality, so it means that you will have to embrace (OUR) along with the Broadcasting Commission, to work out that transition. It means that you will have to revamp your own organisation; you will have to spell out in great detail that transition path."

The Technology Minister told the SMA board members that one of his main objectives is to ensure that Jamaica quickly regains its position as the leading ICT destination in this Hemisphere, and to re-establish the SMA as the centre of excellence in relation to wireless services in the Caribbean.

"We want this organisation to be the pre-eminent agency in the region that has the capabilities to share information, while it develops its own expertise," he remarked. Tuesday, 20 March 2012; Written by JIS Reporter.