THE Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is proposing that a regulatory framework for electric vehicle (EV) penetration, in relation to charging stations, be included in the Electricity Act currently being reviewed by a joint select committee of Parliament.

The OUR, in its submission to the committee, noted that in light of the definition of “supplier” under the Electricity Act, there is the likelihood that participation in the EV charging market will be restricted to the current electricity provider in Jamaica — Jamaica Public Service (JPS) — which holds an exclusive license to, inter alia, supply electricity.

“It is suggested that the Electricity Act be amended to expressly exclude the activities of an EV charging station from being considered as a supplier of electricity. Note that this change would also require related adjustments to the exclusivity provisions in the electricity licence 2016 issued to JPS,” the submission read.

Reacting to the recommendation during the committee’s meeting on Thursday, senior legal officer in the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Kadene Campbell pointed out that the EV policy approved and issued by the ministry supports charging as a service, until there is a settled position on a marketing framework post the 2016 electricity licence.

“One of the chief goals of the EV policy is to ensure a dynamic and responsible national system for the development of efficient charging infrastructure in the island through a well-established legislative and institutional framework that covers planification, installation, maintenance, and the establishment of minimum standards required to ensure its success,” she said.

However, Government committee member Dr Dana Morris Dixon appeared perplexed by Campbell’s response and queried whether or not the ministry was agreeing with the OUR’s suggestion.

Chief technical director for energy in the ministry, Brian Richardson sought to further clarify the policy position of the ministry.

“We have a framework or policy position in place whereby we have been asked to ensure that we maintain the structure as we currently have it until an analysis can be done to look at the structure we currently have and outline to the Cabinet what are the alternative market and regulatory structures,” he said.

He said that given that policy directive, the ministry is keeping the current structure in place, noting that the EV policy which was promulgated in June is aligned with maintaining the same structure, “but we are offering electricity charging or EV charging as a service”.

“This is similar to how the system has evolved, meaning that without the EV policy we had third-party companies providing EV charging services to the nation. The JPS is one of those and I think Evergo [Jamaica] is the other, and so it’s an open market for someone who would want to provide it as a service,” he said.

Government Member Robert Miller, who was chairing the meeting, still was not clear on the ministry’s stance, asking: “What are you recommending as a ministry? For it to remain as is until you basically flesh out the landscape and give a recommendation to Cabinet?”

“No, the EV landscape has been fleshed out. A policy outlines what we intend to do — it’s to have a governing committee which looks across island and see where we need EV charging stations. There’s a guide to say we should have at least one charging station per three kilometre block of the island — so at least we have charging stations being developed across the island — and that would be open to any private entity who so wishes to take the power from the grid and provide it as a service to the consumer,” Richardson responded.

Morris Dixon, however, pressed for further clarification and asked for the ministry to state specifically if it would accept the recommendation of the OUR.

“The recommendation certainly is that we don’t go down the road recommended by the OUR. Let us get a defined position as to how we should move forward, have the Cabinet approve that, and then we change the market structure or not as per the Cabinet’s instructions. And so, in keeping with that policy directive, we would certainly decline the recommendation from the OUR,” he said.