KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica Public Service President and CEO Kelly Tomblin has announced the signing of an agreement with New Fortress Energy to supply gas to the 190MW power plant in Old Harbour, St Catherine.

However, details are still being worked out with Power China, the Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) company selected to build the plant.

The new gas-fired plant will replace JPS’ existing oil-burning plant in Old Harbour Bay, helping to reduce the country’s dependence on oil as the primary fuel for electricity generation.

Gas supplier New Fortress is also the company undertaking the conversion of the power company’s Bogue plant to dual fuel use, including LNG.

JPS sources said the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) with New Fortress Energy was this month signed, for the natural gas that will be used in the new plant.

Tomblin, in a company release on the agreement, said a number of critical elements were now in place for the company to proceed with the new power plant, which will be built in Old Harbour Bay.

Additionally, approval came from the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) and the Electricity Sector Enterprise Team (ESET) of the power purchase agreement (PPA) for the new facility.

JPS also received the environmental permit from the National Planning and Environment Agency (NEPA) to proceed with construction of the plant, she said.

Tomblin said that JPS was still working on the final details with GE, the equipment supplier, and Power China, which will build the plant, and she expected those arrangements to be finalizsed by early April.

The CEO noted that JPS was advanced in closing the financing of the project, which is set for completion by the end of April. 

Tomblin said the project is on target to be fully operational by mid-2018.

“We anticipate that this new power plant will be generating electricity at below US13 per kWh when it comes online, which is remarkable, given the necessity to build new infrastructure and bear the transportation and other logistic costs,” she said.

She added that natural gas is a much cleaner fuel and will result in a 98 per cent improvement in air emissions.

Avia Collinder