Alternative Energy | Sugar Industry | Energy Conservation | Energy Policy
 

Energy use is a major component in the production of goods and services by individuals, enterprises or nations, and to gain the respective competitive edge, the cost of securing and utilizing energy sources is critical. The application of a high level of energy conservation in a business enterprise's operations can contribute significantly through savings, to that company's profitability given the fact that energy in any of its several forms is usually a high cost factor.

Jamaica's indigenous conventional energy sources are almost non-existent with over 90% of all the energy that the country uses being imported, yet its industries like in most other countries are inescapably energy dependent. The volatility of the world's oil markets over the past thirty years has not provided leverage to the country to develop its industries with confidence. This period of instability started in 1973-74 when oil prices soared from less than US$10 per barrel to US$35 per barrel, followed by a sustained period of fluctuating oil prices throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, to the present time when average crude prices are in excess of US$30 per barrel, having previously settled at close to US$10 per barrel up to the period 1998-1999.

The total cost of the country's imported oil and related products has hovered between US$300m and US$450m per year (close enough to US$1m per day) for several years during the decade of the 1990's, but steady increases in the price of oil on the world market since mid 1999 have precipitated projections that the country's oil bill may exceed US$600 million for the fiscal period 2000-2001. This is bad news for Jamaica which already is straight-jacketed with interest payments on long term loans, that exceeds 60% of national revenue collections.

ENERGY USE (AND CONSERVATION) IN THE TRANSPORT SECTOR
Number of Vehicles in Major Parishes 1999-2000

Source: Ministry of Transport and Works (2000)

In 1999, the transport sector consumed 5.95 million barrels of oil or 25.43% of total domestic consumption. In 1992 when the sector was comprised of road and rail transportation sub-sectors, total consumption of oil was only 2.76 million barrels or 15.11% of total domestic consumption.

The main efforts made by the Ministry of Transport and Works, The Ministry of Mining and Energy, and several related GOJ agencies to conserve energy in the sector in recent times include:

• The complete phasing out of leaded gasoline in 1999, and the introduction of two separate grades of unleaded gasoline, which means that in addition to enabling energy conservation protects the environment. Environmental protection is achieved by virtue of the fact that these grades of gasoline when in combustion, result in less gas emissions as compared to the leaded variety.
• The phased replacement of mini buses with standard chassis long buses. Each has a passenger capacity of about 1.5 that of a typical mini bus, which dominated the sector in the 1980s and 1990s.
• The use of articulated buses on trunk routes. The passenger capacity of one of these buses is nearly twice that of a long bus.  
• The establishment of a bus lane on Half-Way-Tree road in 1996: this has reportedly increased bus mobility on that thoroughfare by 50%.
• Several roads in the corporate area and other towns have been blocked off at one end and others turned into one-way thoroughfares to ease traffic congestion.

Jamaica has begun to look at the possible use of alternative fuels, particularly indigenous fuels such as alcohol from sugar cane to facilitate transportation in Jamaica. Some of these technologies are proven, not only in industrialized countries but also in developing ones like Brazil, from which it should not be difficult to transfer relevant technology. The Jamaican sugar industry is at present under immense pressure to survive and could be reconfigured to incorporate the production of ethanol and other biofuels for transportation purposes.

COGENERATION
Cogeneration (Combined Heat and Power or CHP or Cogen) is the simultaneous production of electricity and heat, both of which are used. It is also classified under Eco-Generation along with Renewable Energy Technologies (RET), Waste to Energy Technologies and Distribution Generation Technologies. These comprise a natural grouping of environmentally sustainable energy delivery technologies that offer similar benefits and face similar challenges in world electricity markets.

Cogeneration is one of the more important relatively new means of deriving high levels of energy efficiency and improved competitiveness in energy markets. Its importance has grown tremendously in recent times and many small and medium sized electric utilities have apportioned important roles for it in future systems planning. In Jamaica, although it is still not being used abundantly the sole electric utility company, JPSCo, has endorsed it and there are expectations that the country's future electricity supply will derive significant power from it particularly in the sugar, tourism (hotel) and manufacturing industries.

The central and most fundamental principle of cogeneration is that in order to maximize the many benefits that arise from it, systems should be based on the heat demand of the application. This can be an individual building, a factory or a town/city served by district heat/cooling.

Conventional generation of electricity in large central power stations is normally only 30-40% energy efficient. More recent combined-cycle generation can improve this to over 55%, excluding losses in the transmission of the electricity, which can be as great as 20% of the delivered efficiency. Hence, conventional electricity-only stations release large amounts of energy as waste heat, normally through stacks or via large cooling towers or by cooling with sea or river water.

Through the utilization of the heat, the efficiency of the typical cogen plant can reach 90% or more. Cogeneration therefore offers energy savings ranging between 15% and 40% when compared with the supply of electricity and heat from conventional power stations and boilers.

Provided that the cogeneration is optimized in the way described above, the following benefits arise:

• Increased efficiency of energy conversion and use.
• Lower emissions to the environment, in particular of CO2, the main greenhouse gas. The current mix of cogen installations achieves a reduction of over 30% in CO2 emissions in comparison with generation from coal-fired power stations, and over 10% in comparison with gas fired combined cycle gas turbines. In fact, the very newest cogen installations achieve a reduction of over 50% compared with generation from coal-fired power stations.
• Large cost savings, providing additional competitiveness for industrial and commercial users and offering affordable heat for domestic users.
• An opportunity to move towards more decentralized forms of electricity generation, where plant is designed to meet the needs of local consumers, providing high efficiency, avoiding transmission losses and increasing flexibility in system use. This will particularly be the case if natural gas is the energy carrier.
• Improved local and general security of supply: local generation, through cogeneration, can reduce the risk that consumers are left without supplies of electricity and/or heating. In addition, the reduced fuel need that cogeneration provides reduces import dependency, a key challenge for Jamaica's energy future.
• An opportunity to increase the diversity of generation plants and provide competition in generation. It therefore provides one of the most important vehicles for promoting liberalization in energy markets.
• Increased employment. A number of studies have concluded that the development of CHP systems is a net generator of jobs.

JPSCo's DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME (DSM)
The DSM was established in 1994 as a semi-autonomous unit under the Corporate Services Division of the JPSCo. This was after approximately US$12.5 million was vested to the project by a consortium of funding agencies comprised of: the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Global Environment Trust Facility of the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Canadian trust Facility. Of the total, the IDB's contribution of US$4 million was a loan made to the JPSCo, and the JPSCo's contribution of US$4.3 million are funds targeted by the organization to support the daily running of the DSM over the life of the programme. The other organizations' contributions are grant funds.
Under its broad terms of reference, the DSM has sought to test and demonstrate the marketing, technical, financial and economic feasibility of implementing cost-effective energy conservation measures in both the commercial and residential sectors of the economy. The information acquired through evaluation of demonstration activities are intended to be used to design full-scale sustainable long term energy efficiency programmes with the ultimate goal being the creation of financially competitive and sustainable energy conservation programmes to operate within the Jamaican economy.

The immediate project aims are to:

• Reduce the consumption of fossil fuels
• Avoid or at least delay generation capacity expansion
• Reduce emissions of greenhouse gases
• Build institutional capability in the Jamaica electric power sector and the energy related private sector
• Support the ongoing efforts in testing and adopting energy efficient equipment
• Increase public awareness of the importance of energy conservation
• Demonstrate the potential gains to utilities of other developing countries
• Provide cost savings to the local utility company, JPSCo and participating customers, and
• Expand the use of new technologies including renewable energy technology to Jamaica.

The DSM's Initiatives
Phase 1 (Residential Programme)
100 households participated in the programme: they were each selected by way of an essay competition conducted for students between the ages of 10 and 18. Both winning students and their teachers were selected. Each household was supplied at no cost to them, with 5 Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL's), low flow showerheads, faucet/sink aerators and refrigerator gaskets, by a local contractor.

The main results obtained were:
1) Reduced annual energy use of 58,021 kWh and peak coincident demand reduction of 5.2 kW.
2) Annual savings of 840,000 gallons of water
3) Annual energy savings per lamp of approximately 31kWh

In addition the following general conclusions evolved from the evaluation exercise:

• High levels of customer satisfaction - Pilot participants expressed a high
  level of satisfaction with the products and services received.
• Consumer Education: JPSCo's school-based publicity strategy generated significant media coverage as well as good contact with students, teachers, and parents, concerning in particular, changes in appliance purchasing and usage patterns.

The main recommendations that evolved from the study highlighted the need to:
(1) Educate customers on proper installation and use of CFL's.
(2) Encourage customers to use CFL's for exterior and security lighting in addition to internal lighting.
(3) Identify much larger commercial roles for trade allies in the follow-up (Phase 2) programme.
Phase 2 (Residential Programme)

This programme was commenced on February 8, 1996; and its design was highly influenced by the results of the previous (Phase 1) one.

30,000 participants were selected randomly to form a part of the three-year programme. Unlike phase 1 in which energy efficiency devices were given to participants free of cost, this programme involved participants paying 50% of the cost. Each participant was provided with one of the following three packages of energy efficiency devices:

• Package 1 - Three CFL's only
• Package 2 - Three CFL's, and a low flow shower head only
• Package 3 - A home-energy audit and direct installation of energy efficient equipment, including up to 5 CFL's, and the energy
  efficiency measures included in phase 1.

The programme ended in 1998 as planned, and the achievements were
capacity reduction of 1.67 MW and energy savings of 5,347 MWh. This means that the programme exceeded its original goals that included reduction of capacity by 1 MW and energy savings of 4,393 MWh/year.

The Commercial Energy Conservation Programme
The commercial energy conservation programmes consisted of (1) the Large Commercial Retrofit Programme (LRCP) comprised of relatively large commercial enterprises, and (2) the Small Commercial Pilot Programme (SCPP), comprised of Rate 20 JPSCo customers. In each programme IDB grant funds were used to undertake the energy audit aspect of the project only.

Under the original programme format, the JPSCo was supposed to provide the resources to complete the retrofits under a revolving loan scheme, but since such a scheme never materialized the unit was forced to offer services only to those that could afford to finance the cost of their own renovations. As a result, many were not done, but finally 5 of the 15 companies under the LCRP and 10 of the 15 companies falling under the SCPP were renovated by a combination of self-financing and loans from commercial banks.

Both programmes involved the renovation/improvement of air conditioning systems and the installation of more appropriate lighting. Some of the beneficiaries under the LCRP include:

(1) Victoria Mutual Building Society's head office at Half Way Tree, which improved its entire air conditioning system and replaced T12 lights with T8 lights in accordance with DSM audit recommendations. The result was a tremendous improvement of energy efficiency in the building, yet the payback period for the investment was less than one year.

(2) Le Meredien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, which revamped its air conditioning absorption chiller in response to the audit results and is now enjoying energy savings of over 20%.

(3) Jamaica Property Management Limited, which changed out most of its lights and improved both its central and window air conditioning systems. Similar to Victoria Mutual, the payback was of the order of one year.

Among the ten participants under the SCPP programme was Mall Pharmacy located in the Mall shopping centre, which has since reported a 30% reduction of energy bills after various T8 lights were installed and the air conditioning system improved. Others that have benefited under this programme include Upper Cut Barbers, The Book Shop and Nipoline Auto Centre. These JPSCo customers and others are at present paying back their loans by way of increased charges reflected on their energy bills.

The IDB revolving loan has been working effectively although as could be expected a small number of customers have tended to renege on the original agreement.

The Solar Water Heater Programme
This programme was commenced in 1998 and is being pursued as two separate projects, the commercial project and the residential project. Both are being financed by a revolving loan from the World Bank.

The Commercial Solar Water Heater Project
This project involves energy auditing plus the installation of solar water heating systems to specially selected accommodation properties. So far 12 properties consisting of 10 Hotels and two Halls of Residence at the UWI have been completed. Another three properties are to benefit from installations according to the original plan. Some of the systems completely replaced existing ones, while others complemented existing ones.

The Residential Solar Water Heater Project
The project has been in operation for one year in which over two hundred systems have been installed in private residences. The DSM plans to install more than 1,000 more systems in residences. Most of the solar water heater systems have been supplied by Isratech Ltd, after that company's product with the "Chromagen" brand was selected on the basis of the DSM's technical evaluation of most of the systems marketed in Jamaica. So far it has been determined that the average household saves about 1825 kWh per year by operating solar water heaters instead of electric ones.

The DSM's pioneering Photovoltaic Electricity Project.
Given the present mandate of the REP that limit its line extensions only to communities that have potential customer demand of at least 20 customers per mile of extension, there are several small communities that do not have electricity now, and have no prospect of becoming JPSCo customers. Indeed the claim by the JPSCo that about 95% of the island is already electrified is based solely on the given density criterion.

In its quest to establish the island's first community installation of photovoltaic electrification, the DSM did necessary background research including meeting with community people to properly explain the concept and also to ensure that they would be willing to pay the costs as proposed. Following this the DSM identified two communities, namely, Middle Bonnet in northern St. Catherine and Ballymony in St. Ann to implement its first two community photovoltaic projects. At the same time Automatic Control Engineering Limited was engaged to do the installations.

DSM's Photovoltaic Installation on a house roof at Middle Bonnet

DSM's Photovoltaic Installation on a house roof at Middle Bonnet
Over a period of four weeks between October and November 1999, each of 30 customers in Middle Bonnet benefited from the installation of wiring plus two 60watt PV panels (a total of 120 watts), batteries, inverters and other vital and accessory equipment such as circuit panels. Following that, similar installations were done in Ballymony where 15 households benefited, and another 5 in other communities totaling 50.

The 120-watt electrical supply is capable of providing electricity to enable the operation of 3 fluorescent light bulbs, a small television set and a radio at the same time, for a period of eight hours at night. To reduce future maintenance costs to the customers, the DSM selected a number of primarily young men who showed interest and aptitude during the meetings, and trained them in basic troubleshooting and maintenance of the units in order to avoid the DSM or JPSCo having the responsibility to effect minor repairs.

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