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National Water Commission, NWC, plans to set up a solar system in St James, with a capacity of around 1 megawatt, to cut down on its energy bill.
The water utility received planning approval from the National Environment and Planning Agency, NEPA, in November to install a solar photovoltaic system at Leaders Avenue in Montego Bay.
The NWC expects to spend $11.8 billion on its light and telephone bills this fiscal year, up from $10 billion a year earlier, according to the Jamaica Public Bodies report published by the Ministry of Finance. That report also referenced plans by the NWC to establish solar systems in three locations in St James: at the Leaders Avenue pump station, 350kW; Frasers Content pumping station, 100kW, and the Forest Hill relift station, 350kW.
The NWC plans to spend $10 billion this fiscal year on new projects, up from $4.6 billion in the previous year. Within that spend are energy-efficiency projects.
The water utility aims to cut back on the energy consumed from the national grid by 800kW during daylight hours by the end of financial year 2024-25, according to the report.
It has been taking steps to reduce its energy footprint for some time. In May 2022, the NWC embarked on a 50kW floating solar system at the Mona Reservoir. The system slashed energy consumption initially by one-third at the nearby Mona Treatment Plant complex, with plans to go fully off-grid and save $35 million in annual energy costs.
National Water Commission is projecting a surplus of $333.48 million this fiscal year ending March 2025, which, if achieved, would reverse the deficit of $480 million recorded in the previous year.
Public and private enterprises are investing in solar as a renewable source to slash costs. The shift gels with the policy of the Jamaican government, which is aiming for around half of all electricity generation to be powered from renewable sources by 2030.
To hit that target, renewables would need to grow further to around 400MW, based on the current size of the total electricity grid, which stands at about 789MW. The Government Procurement Entity awarded contracts earlier this month for 100MW of that total for the development of two new solar plants to plug into the grid, with additional plans to issue contracts for another 168MW.
Currently, the main sources of renewable energy are in the form of wind at 101MW, solar at 58MW, and hydro at 28MW. Solar, however, will grow to 158MW with the construction and commissioning of the new plants from Wigton and Sunterra. Additionally, Wigton is expected to replace around 20.7MW of its current wind capacity with solar.
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