KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Minister of Science, Energy and Technology (MSET) will be introducing licences for electricity power wheeling shortly.

Wheeling will allow Jamaicans who generate excess electricity in one location to be able to use the credit obtained from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) at another site.

Portfolio Minister, Dr Andrew Wheatley, said it will be useful to persons with more than one property, as they will be able to use the credit from excess electricity generated at one area to offset the bill for the other location.

In order to obtain a license for electricity power wheeling, a person must be a registered customer of the JPS; a registered owner of the property, or have written permission from the owner where the electricity-generation plant will be constructed. They must also provide a certified line diagram of the proposed renewable energy system or non-renewable system, among other things.

Dr Wheatley, who was speaking in a JIS News interview, said that the JPS would also need to carry out its own inspections, as well as install a different type of meter.

He is advising interested people to approach the ministry for further information and guidance.

Electricity power wheeling is another initiative of the Administration to make the energy sector more robust and realise efficiencies.

There is also the net-billing arrangement, which allows JPS customers who generate electricity from renewable sources for personal use to sell the excess energy to the national grid.

The minister said there has been great interest in net billing, with an average of 30 licences granted per month.

The ministry has taken over the granting of licenses for net billing, electricity power wheeling as well as any auxiliary system that seeks to generate electricity that can be supplied to the grid.

This process was formerly undertaken by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).

Minister Wheatley is urging persons to take advantage of the arrangements, noting that part of the “thrust of the Government is to ensure that we have energy security, we are committed to environmentally friendly habits, as it relates to generating energy for the productive sector as well as for residential use”.

He highlighted that over the past months, the government has embarked on a number of initiatives geared towards boosting electricity from renewable sources.

He cited the recent commissioning of the Wigton and the BMR wind farms in St Elizabeth, with a solar facility in Content Clarendon to be put into service shortly.

The minister told JIS News that the Government is committed to the goal of having 30 per cent of the island’s electricity coming from renewable energy sources by 2030.

This is also a part of the Government’s strategic priority of inclusive sustainable economic growth.