Energy Minister Clive Mullings will next Tuesday present the national energy and energy conservation policies to include net metering, allowing Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) customers the right to sell electricity generated from renewable energy back to the national grid at the same price they pay for it, despite opposition from the monopoly light utility.

Mullings. to present energy policies next week

The move will require Government to alter its licensing agreement with JPS, in which it retains a 20 per cent stake.

JPS instead favours the existing net billing arrangement under which customers are offered a price equivalent to the 'avoided cost of generation' (the cost JPS would otherwise have paid to generate the electricity) plus a 15 per cent premium for generating from renewable sources. Net billing uses two different meters, for buying and selling, whereas net metering uses one meter which winds back or forward depending on whether electricity is being consumed or produced in surplus.

President of the Jamaica Solar Energy Association (JSEA) Damian Lyn welcomed net metering as what advocates have argued would make renewable energy economically viable. However, Lyn admitted some scepticism after Previous Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell announced net metering in 2005 but failed to deliver.

"It is going to prove equitable, actually winding the meter forward and back, then that is going to create growth in our industry right away especially with commercial customers," he said. "Just imagine the affect of taking all that A/C load off the grid during the day and the impact could be far-reaching in terms of the amount of electricity being supplied to the national grid."

Lyn, who is also managing director of renewable energy company Alternative Power Systems (APS), said that he had a waiting list of customers interested in purchasing equipment should net metering be introduced in Jamaica.

Net metering will reduce the need for expensive batteries needed to store electricity and is expected to reduce transmission losses since the current will travel short distances between customers who supply surplus electricity and those who will consume it.

JPS have objected to net metering since it will force both the utility and other customers to effectively subsidise those customers who are selling to the grid by asking them to absorb associated costs including transmission costs, maintenance and losses - a factor also acknowledged by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).

However as outgoing OUR deputy director general Raymond Silvera previously told the Observer, the energy crisis could reach a tipping point where JPS will have to bow to economic pressures facing the country. This same argument came up in public consultations carried out by the government committee responsible for preparing the energy policy and accompanying energy conservation policy.

"I'm afraid that as the price of fuel goes up there has to be some adjustment in their thinking," said Silvera of the JPS.

"If the price of oil goes up to US$200 per barrel you'll find that solar/photo-voltaics will come into their own and most of the power provided to the grid during the day will be solar and perhaps the utility (JPS) will have to act as a storage system and feed electricity back when the sun goes down at night."

Government previously lifted import duty and GCT duties on energy saving and renewable energy products in an attempt to encourage their adoption while the National Housing Trust (NHT) has made available loans at concessionary interest rates.

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