WITH a career spanning over 25 years in the global energy sector, Hugh Grant, the new president and CEO of Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), is advocating for a measured approach to Jamaica’s transition towards renewable energy.

Speaking at a Jamaica Chamber of Commerce breakfast forum on Friday, Grant championed the shift to renewables but cautioned against unnecessary haste, citing grid stability concerns and lessons from international energy transitions.

“We have to be careful of how we transition so we don’t compromise reliability and resiliency,” Grant stated. “And we have seen this played out globally, so here in Jamaica, let us not make the same mistakes.”

Jamaica has set an ambitious target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 — a significant leap from the approximately 12 per cent achieved as of 2023. The Government aims to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels and promote environmental sustainability — a vision the new CEO supports. However, Grant emphasised that the transition must be methodical and backed by critical infrastructure investments. He drew comparisons to global markets, highlighting how Germany and California struggled with their energy transitions.

“Look at what happened in Germany. Look what’s happening in California,” he said. “There was a very fast transition to renewables. Retirement of nuclear plants, no longer allowed to burn fossil fuel, and they were having issues with constant outages due to the intermittent nature of renewables. And what happened? You start bringing back nuclear plants and you start dealing with more thermal energy.”

Jamaica, Grant emphasised, does not have the luxury of being able to import electricity like New York, where he previously worked as a senior energy executive.

“In New York I was a system operator. I could use a thousand megawatts — that’s more than all of Jamaica. And if I needed more power all I had to do was take two taps of what we call a phase angle regulator, a device that moves power, and import power from New Jersey,” he explained.

Jamaica, however, is an energy island, meaning that if the grid falters there is no back-up supply from neighbouring countries.

“We don’t have the luxury, as I did when I was in New York, of just pulling from a neighbouring state. We have to get it right the first time.”

Success, Grant says, lies in balancing the pace of adoption with investments in grid resiliency and energy storage. Further, he stressed that decision-makers must be mindful of ensuring a diversified mix of renewables.

“For example, what happens when the solar is not there? We could have wind turbines. We’re going to have a diversified set of renewables in order to better help us to get there — to a more resilient place,” he told the Jamaica Observer in a brief interview following the function.

JPS is currently executing a 170-megawatt battery energy storage project but Grant made it clear that this alone is not enough.

“We need longer-duration battery storage to fully unlock the potential of renewables,” he said. “Right now, battery storage is four to eight hours, at best. Renewables, independent of energy storage, is not a reliable and resilient solution,” he asserted.

In recent years several large manufacturers, including Red Stripe, Wisynco, and Rainforest Seafoods, have opted to generate their own electricity using renewable sources, effectively exiting the national grid. This trend, known as grid defection, is driven by the desire to achieve energy cost savings and enhance operational reliability. However, Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has noted that some of these companies are experiencing “deep regrets” over their decision as the substantial capital investments required for self-generation may not yield the anticipated benefits.

“People underestimate what it takes, in terms of cost, to maintain and operate, say, a microturbine,” Grant said. “When I was in New York, hospitals and high-rise buildings tried grid defection. Five, six years later they all came running back because the cost to maintain that type of equipment is many times underestimated.”

Further, he explained that as more large companies leave the grid, the cost burden could shift to smaller businesses and residential customers.

“We already have a fixed cost. That fixed cost can be distributed over many or over a few. If it’s distributed over many, we lower the price per customer. If it’s over a few, rates will go up.”

Grant noted that policy changes are necessary to ensure that businesses stay at least partially connected to the grid, reducing risks for the wider economy.

In the meantime, the CEO has committed to upgrading JPS’s grid infrastructure to withstand more extreme weather events — a decision spurred by Hurricane Beryl’s impact on Jamaica.

“Currently, the grid is designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane. Beryl was a category 4, and we saw the impact that had, so going forward we are designing for a category 5.”

This transition, however, will take several years and significant investment.

“Reality is, we have over 14,000 kilometres of distribution lines and over 3,000 kilometres of transmission lines. That’s a lot of infrastructure to replace,” he noted.

From left: Flow Vice-President and General Manager Stephen Price; president and CEO of Jamaica Public Service (JPS), Hugh Grant; president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Phillip Ramson; and vice-president, Jamaica Broilers, Hi-Pro Division, Jamie Ogilvie engage in a discussion ahead of JCC’s Breakfast Conversation Series on Friday. The event, which was held at Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St Andrew, featured Grant and was moderated by broadcast journalist and attorney-at-law Dionne Jackson-Miller.