JAMAICA Energy Partners (JEP) plans to run one kilometre of fuel pipeline from Petrojam’s Marcus Garvey Drive refinery to its 60 megawatt power plant currently under construction in West Kingston.

What’s more, National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) last week approved the environmental permit for the pipelines and conveyors, including underground cables, gas lines and other such infrastructure with a diameter or more than 10 centimetres, for the transport of gas, oil or chemicals at Petrojam to JEP’s West Kingston power plant.

The construction sequence laid out in JEP’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) document had the installation of the fuel pipeline from Petrojam after roads, buildings and tanks were put in. The final stage would include the installation of special machinery and equipment.

JEP broke ground on the US$126-million West Kingston power plant in December 2010, with the system expected to produce 66 megawatts of power with engines that can run on gas oil and natural gas. The plant is expected to operate by 2012 and create 100 temporary jobs and 60 permanent positions. The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation is financing the project.

According to JEP’s EIA document it also considered trucking the fuel for its plant, but apparently opted to run the pipeline that would directly feed fuel to its electricity generators, much like a planned petroleum coke (petcoke) generator that was to be located at Hunt’s Bay fed directly by Petrojam through a delayed coker process.

The plan was to be part of the refinery’s US$1.2-billion upgrade project to increase capacity by approximately 40 per cent in a bid to meet additional demand projected by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).

The plan was for the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) to utilise the petcoke produced as the inexpensive fuel source for a new 100-120 MW electricity plant in a joint venture partnership.

Now, JPS is pursuing 360 MW build-out in Old Harbour, where the electricity generators will be fired by natural gas, or diesel should there be no supply of the cheaper fuel.