3 days ago
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The head of Jamaica Public Service Company Limited, JPS, had cautioned against the quick adoption of renewable energy into the electricity grid, stating that other areas have experienced power outages in their efforts to switch to renewable sources.
However, a spokesman for renewable energy providers says Jamaica has been too slow in ditching fossil fuels and is calling on the Jamaican government to be more proactive in facilitating the use of solar to power businesses and homes.
JPS President and CEO Hugh Grant expressed support for the adoption of renewable energy into the grid, but warned that it had to be coupled with adequate battery storage to be successful.
“Renewables, independent of energy storage, is not a reliable and resilient solution. We need to have renewables coupled with storage to have a viable solution. Jamaica is an island; we have to ensure that we have a diversified energy mix, and frankly, as part of that mix, we have to think about storage… . That source of energy is something that at any time, in any weather condition, you can call upon and it can respond. Particularly due to the fact that we are here on an island, we don’t have the luxury of not getting it right,” Grant said at a forum hosted by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce in Kingston.
Grant, a former vice-president of Consolidated Edison Company in New York, emphasised that other countries such as Germany and parts of the United States had made fast transitions to renewables, only to return to fossil fuels shortly afterwards because of constant outages and intermittent power. In New York, the company had to rebuild new transmission lines in record time because they had dismantled the retired fossil plants.
“We just have to take a look at it and monitor our pace, learn from others, and move in that direction,” Grant said.
The JPS boss also indicated that renewable energy along with the required battery storage could prove costly.
“If you don’t have the dependency of the grid, the price for the renewable solution, which is the solar plus the batteries, is 50 per cent more than the price” of a gas turbine burning liquefied natural gas. The reality is, you’re going to need renewables and battery size to the appropriate capacity, so you don’t have dependency on the grid,” said the power utility CEO.
However Jason Robinson, vice-president of the Jamaica Renewable Energy Association, says the transition to renewables can be speedier with proper planning, especially from the government.
“I think I respectfully disagree with (Grant),” Robinson told the Financial Gleaner. “I think the cost of utility-scale renewables will continue to fall, and grid reliability can be maintained with effective planning, energy storage, and modern grid technology. That’s happening all over the world and many places that have, had to upgrade their grid to work better with renewables,” he said.
“The real challenge is ensuring that (renewable sources) are built out and managed properly, rather than dismissing renewables as unreliable or too expensive. Grid-scale solar is expensive, but it hasn’t been deployed in a very large enough scale in Jamaica to where we can see the impact on our residential bills,” added Robinson, who heads the renewable company Solar Buzz.
He also wants the Jamaican government to simplify the process of net billing for small businesses and householders, as he says the current approval process can take up to two years.
Net billing allows for financial compensation for excess electricity generated but not utilised.
“Currently, the net billing programme we have is really cumbersome and very difficult to do. Most installers are not applying for net billing because it takes a very long time to get the licence for you to sell back (electricity to the grid),” he said.
Robinson suggests that the government should offer more incentives including low interest loans for businesses to put solar panels on buildings, instead of relying on large scale tenders to grow the renewable energy sector.
Renewables currently make up about 20 per cent of the national power grid. The Jamaican government intends to grow that ratio to 50 per cent.
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