Approach with caution
The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has disclosed that while it supports the push to include more renewables in the electricity generation process, it is cautious about how it is done.
Joseph Williams, senior vice-president of generation and business development at JPS, said cost, reliability and sustainability are key concerns in the renewables discussion.
“We all agree that renewables is certainly the future in energy. We, however, have to be mindful and not wanting to sound defensive in any way, that there is a right way and a wrong way.”
Williams pointed to countries in Europe that increased their renewables penetration and set high targets but later learnt some lessons which resulted in those countries missing their targets.
He highlighted that they stumbled upon significant challenges in terms of prices, stability and sustainability of energy supply.
“So whilst we believe that for a country like Jamaica which is an island with lots of sun, 12 months around, this is something that we should be looking at,” he stressed.
“If we take the case on the matter of replacing the units that are to be retired with renewables, that can be done, but let’s understand that we also have to be mindful of the cost, what the consumers will pay and also the security of supply, it must be reliable and it must be sustainable,” he continued.
He further explained that JPS also considers the cost of taking energy from renewable plants which involves using fossil-fired units even when battery systems are in place.
He said the fossil-fired units are used to carry what is referred to as spinning reserves, which comes in handy when there’s an intermittent occurrence whether on a solar or wind plant which could result in customers being inconvenienced by disruptions in supply.
Williams said, “That is why how much renewables you put in, in addition to how you integrate what you put into the grid is important.”
But it’s not an impossible task to introduce more renewables.
David Barrett, principal consultant of ENBAR Consulting, an energy and environment service consultancy, and founding director and past president of Jamaica Solar Energy Association, pointed out that it’s been done before and it can be done again.
“The energy sector is responsible for about 53 per cent of all our carbon emissions in Jamaica, it’s the largest carbon emitter so we’re highly motivated to change that. Look at the most recent request for proposal and establishment of Paradise Park [Solar Farm in Westmoreland]. That project came in at a price that was cost competitive with the fossil options. So if we’re looking at whether renewables are cost competitive that’s been proven over and over,” Barrett argued.
He further stated, “Funding is available at the very local level via DBJ but internationally there is financing, because renewables are cost competitive, the technology is proven and there’s additional green financing which has come on the scene.”
But Williams is of the view it will take more storage in particular to achieve the renewable energy targets Jamaica has set for itself.
“In response to early challenges we had with renewable projects, we installed 24.5 megawatts of hybrid storage so we improved the reliability of supply from those energy resources and that’s what we have to be mindful of. There is a way that we can get to 50 per cent but we have to be mindful to ensure that the customers are not impacted by increased prices or by instability in supply,” Williams warned.
He said “for the just under 190 megawatt of renewables that we have right now, it [hybrid storage] is enough. We’ve seen significant improvements in the performance of the grid since we installed that system. However, when we get to 1,200 megawatts it would require significant increase in storage systems and that’s why I referred to the timing because we have to consider the cost of storage.”
In the meantime, Petrojam’s General Manager Winston Watson believes the energy industry is moving towards balance.
“In general the refinery industry is moving away to cleaner fuels, looking at cleaner gasolines, cleaner diesel, we have ultra-low sulphur diesel, we still sell high sulphur diesel but not as high as before.”
In relation to electric vehicles, Watson noted that Petrojam supplies the fuel to generate the electricity but not to charge the vehicles.
“We recognise that the transportation industry will move towards electricity at some point but I don’t think it’s going to be totally phased out. The next thing you have to look at is the type of renewable fuel you can use for transportation. You have ethanol, you can increase your usage of ethanol, it is a renewable fuel, you just have to plant more of the crops that can produce ethanol, you can go to biodiesel which is something we’re looking at, you just have to plant more of the crops that will allow you to produce biodiesel. From a refinery standpoint, those are the areas we are seeing where if we do some of these things we can reduce the carbon emissions. In general you have refineries looking at things like cutting back on the amount of HFO they are producing,” Watson informed.
He said “my opinion is that the market is dynamic, oil is not just going to disappear in the next 15 years what you’re gonna end up with is a balance, you’re gonna have the refineries, Saudi Arabia, United States, Venezuela, Nigeria, Russia and they are going to still produce hydrocarbons. What we have to do as refineries is find a way to integrate ourselves into that mix in the transportation sector.”