Jamaica’s Energy Profile
Jamaicans presently pay
40 cents (USD) per kwh for electricity which is one of the highest rates in the
world. In comparison, residents in the state of Texas pay an average of 12 cents per kwh. The
high cost of electricity in Jamaica puts a large burden on households and small
businesses. The average citizen has to pay approximately 33% of their income
towards electricity, resulting in many
residents living without electricity with some resorting to electricity theft. With
the current energy conundrum Jamaica faces, it’s government is exploring ways
to reduce energy costs.
Jamaica’s current
energy crisis is not reflective of its historic beginnings in energy. Jamaica
started out as one of the energy pioneers in the Caribbean, and was one of the
first countries in the world to receive electricity. However , 122 years later in
2014, Jamaica has fallen behind in the use of renewable energy, but there is still
great potential for development. As the third largest island in the Caribbean,
Jamaica has an area of 10,990 sq km (4,243 sq miles) and a population of 2.7
million people. Jamaica’s main industries that contribute to the GDP are
Bauxite, Tourism, Agriculture and Manufacturing. Jamaica’s energy resources are
managed by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining. The Energy
Division works with two principal energy
companies, namely the Jamaica Public
Service Company (JPSCo) and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.
The Jamaica Public
Service Company (JPSCo) is the primary electricity distributer and provider and
the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica is the primary importer of petroleum and
other energy products. Jamaica does not have it’s own energy resource and this
has caused energy disruptions for example, in the 1973 oil crisis, and also causes increases in the cost of
electricity. Jamaica is heavily dependent on foreign energy resources and
imports most of it’s energy. Jamaica imports energy from Trinidad and Tobago,
Venezuela, Ecuador and Mexico. Jamaica has a great
potential to use renewable energy,
but under utilizes this avenue. Some of
the renewable energy sources that Jamaica currently uses include solar energy,
mini-hydropower, wind, and biomass. Jamaica’s main energy sources come from oil,
coal, hydro-electricity and biomass. Jamaica’s Bauxite industry uses a large
percentage of the energy that is imported.
Jamaica is a pioneer in
electricity, as it was one of the first countries in the world to receive
electricity in 1892, supplied by the Jamaica Electric Light Company in the
nation’s capital Kingston. In 1897, just five years after it’s historic rise to
power generation, Jamaica made another important step towards green energy lead
by the West India Electric Company. This company built a hydroelectric plant on
the Rio Cobre River with an energy
capacity of over 900 kilowatts. These advancements lead to industrial
revolution in Jamaica and introduced new elements to the country including
electric tram cars for public transport. Jamaica’s energy future was bright but
not without challenges. In 1907, a major earthquake destroyed a section of the
capital Kingston including the power infrastructure. This lead to a consolidation
of energy services but resulted in significant improvements in service.
The consolidation
formed the Jamaica Public Service company. The Jamaica Public Service (JPSCo)
became a registered company in 1923. It
started as a foreign owned private company. JPSCo has 603,350 customers
and has a generation capacity of over 620 Megawatts. JPSCo also partners with
the following Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in order to have access to an
additional 820 megawatts of power: Wigton Wind Farm, Jamaica Energy Partners,
Jamalco and Jamaica Private Power Company (JPPC). Eighty percent of (JPSCo) is
owned by the private shareholders Marubeni Caribbean and Korea East- West Power
Company, Nineteen percent is owned by the Government of Jamaica and one percent
by minority shareholders.
Due to the fact that
Jamaica produces no petroleum, the government of Jamaica created the Petroleum
Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) in 1979 to import petroleum, manage its use and
distribution and to develop strategies for the exploration of oil and gas. The
PCJ is comprised of the following companies: Petrojam limited, Petrojam Ethanol
Limited, Petcom Limited, Jamaica Aircraft Refuelling Services, and Wigton
Windfarm Limited. The Jamaican government has made alliances with other
countries in order to receive concession on the price of oil. The Alliances
are: The Venezuelan Oil Agreement, The Latin American Energy Organization
(OLADE), Assistencia Reciproca Petrolera Empresarial Latino Americana (ARPEL),
The San Jose Accord, and the PetroCaribe Agreement. The Venezuelan Oil Agreement, also known as
the Caracas Energy Agreement supplies 80,000 barrels of oil per day to ten
Central American and Caribbean States including Jamaica. Jamaica pays for 80%
of the oil and repays the other 20% in a 15 year loan at a 2% interest rate.
The Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE) was established in 1973 with the
Lima Agreement which helps to ensure that the twenty six (26) Latin American
and Caribbean member countries which includes Jamaica will have an economical
means of receiving energy. In 1985, The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica joined
the (ARPEL) which is a forum made up of oil companies in the Latin American and
Caribbean region. It promotes economical business among the countries that are
members. The PetroCaribe agreement is an agreement between the government of
Jamaica and Venezuela to also promote economical means of receiving energy.
In 2006, Jamaica imported US1.84 billion
dollars worth of oil and in 2007 crude oil was imported for US $90 per bbl.
During the period of 2006 to 2010, an average of 25.6 million barrels of
petroleum was imported. On a daily basis, Jamaica consumes approximately sixty
six thousand barrels of petroleum and sixty two thousand short tons of coal. In
addition to this, approximately three billion kilowatt hours of electricity are
used and as a by-product approximately ten million metric tons of carbon dioxide
are emitted.
The major consumers of
energy in Jamaica are the National Water Commission, the hotel and tourism
industry, and the bauxite and alumina industry. The following data of petroleum consumption by barrel in 2010 was
obtained from a table created by the Energy Economics and Planning Unit of the
Ministry of Energy and Mining: Road and Rail Transportation-5,647,692 barrels,
Shipping-1,868,525 barrels, Aviation-1,899,930 barrels, Cement Manufacture-5139
barrels, Electricity Generation-6,578,349 barrels, Bauxite/Alumina Processing-
2,884,978 barrels, Sugar Manufacturing - 15,045 barrels, Cooking and Lighting –
950,861 barrels, Other Manufacturing 52, 969 barrels, Other Activity-115, 324
barrels, Petroleum Refinery-268,039 barrels.
According to a report
from The Jamaica Sustainable Energy Roadmap, energy loss is mainly
due to inefficiencies in the national grid, but is also attributed to electricity
theft. In 2013, JPSCo reported a system
loss of 25.88% because of electricity theft costing US $43.5M. With
an unemployment rate of 13.4%, and the average gross salary being US $2498, it is difficult for the average Jamaican to
pay for electricity. To add to this, unlike the government, the all-inclusive
mega resorts, and industries such as the bauxite industry, the average Jamaican
has to pay an increased rate of 40 cents (USD) per kWH and cannot afford the
huge burden of simply lighting their homes, and running necessary appliances
such as the refrigerator. According to the US Department of Energy, the average
per capita consumption of electricity in Texas was 5683 kWh in 2011 at a cost
of around 12 cents per kWh. If the average cost of electricity in Jamaica which
is 40 cents per kWh, were to be extrapolated to the average per capita
consumption in Texas, this would yield an average yearly cost of US$ 2273.20 instead
of US$ 681.96. These figures are
excluding transmission, delivery and other charges which can add to the cost of
electricity by as much as 45%. Bear in mind that in Jamaica, most homes do not
have a water heater or air conditioning unit and the average Jamaican home is
less than 500 square feet. A possible reason for electricity theft might be
attributed to, the fact that the people cannot afford to pay for electricity because
they have to spend their income on basic
necessities like food, water and shelter. The Jamaican Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy
and Mining is working to implement projects to decrease the cost of energy.
There is a lot of potential for Renewable Energy
in Jamaica. The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Department of the PCJ
has lead initiatives to make buildings more energy efficient. They have started
by implementing solar energy equipment in hospitals and schools to provide
lighting and water heating. The Wigton Windfarm has collaborated with the
University of the West Indies to do a Wind and Solar Development Program
(W&SDP) in which feasibility studies have been done to determine possible future wind farm sites.
The PCJ has also initiated a project to produce biodiesel. The PCJ has also
created public education projects like the Energy Conservation Incentive
Program for Schools and the Energy Seminar Series for businesses, householders
and other consumers.
Jamaica has great solar potential with Global
Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) ranging from
5 to 8 kWh per square meter per day. In comparison Germany,
which has the most installed solar photovoltaic (PV)
systems in the world, has an average GHI of 3.5 kWh per square meter per day. A
JPS report based on the average Jamaican’s electricity consumption stated that
a one square –kilometer solar PV farm would generate enough power for over 64,000 households. This
indicates that approximately 10 solar farms could power the approximately
525,000 households in Jamaica. Ongoing
energy efficiency and renewable energy pilot projects funded by the
Development Bank of Jamaica reported that two particular hotels, Footprints on
the Sand and the Sunrise Club Hotel implemented energy efficiency measures
which included replacing electric water heaters with solar water heaters,
installing a solar PV system and replacing old air condition units with more
efficient units.
Jamaica also has great potential for Wind Power.
The Wigton Windfarm in Manchester, owned by the PCJ and the Munro Wind Farm in
St, Elizabeth owned by the JPSCo are two wind farms that are operated on a
commercial scale. The Wigton Wind farm has an average wind speed of 8.3 m/s.
Wigton started in 2004 with 23 wind turbines that generated a capacity of 20.7
MW. In 2010 Wigton added 9 wind turbines which added an additional 18 MW
capacity, to contribute a total capacity of 38MW to the national electricity
grid. The Munro Wind Farm which was started in 2010 has 4 wind turbines which
generate 3MW capacity to the grid. Feasibility studies in 18 locations have
being done by Wigton for the possibility
of developing more wind farms. A report by the Worldwatch Institute stated that
the development of ten (10) wind farms could contribute to supplying about half
of the power needs in Jamaica.
Other renewable energy resources like
hydropower, waste-to-energy power, biomass, wave and tidal energy and
geothermal energy, also demonstrate great potential to be developed.
Development of these resources would help Jamaica to off-set the cost of
imported energy and be less dependent on imported oil.
The Jamaican government is working towards
finding ways to reduce energy costs and
depend less on imported oil. In January of
2012, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining the Honourable
Phillip Paulwell stated that over the subsequent four year period he would
reduce electricity rates by 50%. A
National Development Plan called “Vision 2030” was implemented by the
Jamaican government in 2005. This plan seeks to ensure that Jamaica will have
fuel diversification. Past President of the Office of Utilities Regulation
(OUR), J. Paul Morgan has been an advocate for the use of Liquified Natural Gas
for Energy in Jamaica. He also stated
the need for new electricity legislation. On October 4, 2013, the Ministry, on
recommendation from the Office of Utilities Regulation granted a license to the
Energy World International as part of an ongoing project to decrease the cost
of electricity in Jamaica. Energy World International is an energy company
which produces and sells natural gas. The Worldwatch Institute has also
collaborated with the Jamaican government to create the “Sustainable Energy
Roadmap” which is a methodology to help Jamaica to develop the energy
resources. This project was funded by the German government through it’s
International Climate Initiative. The Worldwatch Institute has done extensive,
comprehensive research on ways to make energy distribution and transmission
more efficient, analysed ways of having more environmentally responsible and
efficient consumption of energy, and done feasibility studies for the better
use and development of renewable energy resources.
Further Reading
Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and
Mining.
[Internet]
[Accessed 2014 Dec]
Available from http://www.mstem.gov.jm
Clean Energy Info Portal. [Internet] [Accessed 2014 Dec]
US Energy Information
Administration. US Dept of Energy. Country
Profile. [Internet]
Jamaica Information Service. Ministry of Science, Technology,
Energy and Mining.
2 May 2014.
[Internet]
[Accessed 2014 Dec] Available from http://jis.gov.jm/ministers-press-release-energy-world-international/
Energy World Corporate Profile.
[Internet]
[Accessed 2014 Dec]
The Jamaica Gleaner. Jamaica's energy problem needs urgent
attention
Web. 28 March 2013. [Internet] [Accessed 2014 Dec]
The Jamaica Public Service.[Internet] [Accessed 2014
Dec]
Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.[Internet]
[Accessed 2014 Dec]
Davis, Nick. 4 April 2014.
Jamaican Power Company Reacts To Electricity Theft.
Marketplace
Morning Report. BBC World Service. [Internet]
[Accessed 2014 Dec]
Available
from http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/bbc-world-service/jamaican-power-company-reacts-electricity-theft
World Watch Institute.
2013.Jamaica
Sustainable Energy Roadmap. [Internet]
[Accessed
2014 Dec] Available from Jamaica-Sustainable-Energy-Roadmap-112013.pdf
US Department of
Energy. Internet] [Accessed 2014 Dec]
Vision 2030 Jamaica National
Development Plan [Internet]
[Accessed
2014 Dec] Available from
www.vision2030.gov.jm/National-Development-Plan
