Smoke billows from the Kingston landfill at Riverton City during a July fire. It was envisaged that the site would cease to exist in its present form and be replaced by a processing plant with power generation capacity where garbage is used as fuel.

Government's ambitious $500-million waste-to-energy plan has hit a snag as bidders are unable to satisfy the required criteria for converting garbage into energy then selling it into the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) grid.

"Of the 38 persons that tendered bids they all missed the criteria," junior minister responsible for local government, Bobby Montague told the Business Observer.

The decision on a successful bidder was scheduled for June 10.

While Montague did not disclose the specific criteria that derailed the process, he emphasised that the bidders fell short of the requirements and a new tender would reopen in November.

"We will reopen the call on the third of November and close it on the 15th of December," Montague said.

The original tender was conducted by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) but Montague revealed that Petroleum Corporation Jamaica (PCJ) would instead be conducting the reopened tender process.

"PCJ requested that they controlled the bidding with OUR oversight and we accepted," Montague said.

OUR is the regulatory body responsible for energy matters and all tenders would have to be done with the office's approval and oversight.

Earlier this year the local government arm of the prime minister's office announced the proposed establishment of at least two facilities that would convert domestic garbage into energy.

It was envisaged that the Kingston landfill at Riverton City would cease to exist in its present form and be replaced by a processing plant with power generation capacity where garbage is used as fuel.

Another such plant would be set up at the western end of the island.

But the plans of local government for their waste-to-energy project appear not to be in synch with procedures at the OUR.

Communications manager at OUR, David Geddes, told the Business Observer that local government's bidding process "could not have been to convert waste into energy for sale to the JPS grid".

"I do not know what local government is engaged in," said Geddes. "It could have been bidding to convert waste to energy, but not for sale to JPS".

He explained that the procedure for selling energy to JPS was "not simple" and is controlled by strict guidelines which are monitored by the contractor general's office.

According to Geddes the OUR, in the recent past, had conducted a tender for the supply of renewable energy to JPS "from whatever source".

"We had a bidding process for 60 megawatt of energy," said Geddes. "Persons who wanted to sell power would have to participate in that bid."

Geddes added that two entities went through that tender process.

However, based on Montague's statements, the OUR shortlist does not include persons bidding on the local government waste-to-energy project.

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