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reduced by a combination of
increased practice of energy conservation, and
increased use of renewable energy technologies, for
many years.
Apart from the promulgation of the Energy Policy in 1996, the
Ministry of Mining and Energy (MME) along with
the PCJ has over the past few
years promoted these concepts by specific public
education programmes. These have included:
(1) Hosting discussion programmes in educational
institutions and communities
(2) Advertisement in the mass media
(3) Distribution of leaflets and pamphlets expounding
energy saving tips, and
(4) Distribution of an energy management handbook that
is at present being updated.
In addition to the foregoing,
the MME has anchored energy conservation activities in
its own organizations, on the establishment and
operation of the JPSCo's DSM programme. Under the DSM,
which was established in 1994, a number of GOJ
properties, which fall under GOJ ministries and
agencies, have been subjected to energy audits with
the intention of effecting retrofits to realize
savings. Some of the properties audited, such as the
Ministry of Finance have started to install retrofits,
however, the lack of funds have limited overall
success.
Energy Use in Public
Sector Buildings
In an attempt to glean information about the
level of unnecessary waste that prevails in the use of
energy in Jamaica's public service buildings in
general, two case studies were evaluated and are
hereby presented. Both are based on energy audits done
under the DSM's energy audit programme.
Case study number one involves
the buildings that occupy the Ministry of Finance
complex at National Heroes Circle, and Case study
number 2 relates to the Bustamante Hospital for
Children located on Arthur Wint Drive, both in
Kingston.
The DSM's energy audits
are to:
-
Identify the current trend
of energy consumption in the subject premises
-
Research and identify
possible inefficiencies in the use of energy
-
Recommend possible Energy
Efficiency measures to reduce operating costs and
improve equipment efficiency.
Energy Conservation at
the National Water Commission (NWC)
The NWC is the GOJ agency that is responsible
for the delivery of all domestic water to Jamaican
residences and businesses. It falls under the Ministry
of water and the water it supplies comes indirectly
(after filtering) from wells, rivers, springs and
special reservoirs. The NWC supplies about 150 million
gallons of water per day to Jamaicans, 30 percent of
which satisfies a need for potable water while 70% is
for irrigation. A significant amount of the water is
pumped directly to customers in some locations while
in other locations water is transmitted from large
catchment facilities (mainly concrete tanks) that are
elevated, by gravity feed to customers.
Because of the need for
significant pumping of water the NWC is numbered among
a few very large users of electricity in Jamaica. Over
the past five years it has been trying diligently to
reduce the cost of electricity to run its operations
with a view to passing on the reduction to its
customers.
The main areas of energy
conservation that the NWC has focused on are:
-
Conducting demand analysis
and cost benefit analysis on many of its rural and
urban systems with a view to securing better rate
placement by JPSCo. So far most of the systems
analysed by NWC engineers under the special
programme have been subsequently put into higher
number rate categories by the JPSCO as a result,
which means that payment is made at lower tariffs
than before.
-
Premium efficiency motors
are purchased whenever there is need for new motors.
Payback analysis have proven that although premium
efficiency motors are more expensive to purchase
they amount to much better deals after about three
years of service.
-
The use of larger pumps to
replace numbers of smaller ones where possible.
Wherever there are two or three existing pumps, for
example, which can be replaced by a single new pump,
the option is taken to effect the replacement in
order to realize a much more efficient pumping
operation.
-
An ongoing pipe
rehabilitation programme in which larger pipes are
put into some systems instead of larger pumps to
achieve higher volumes of flow.
-
A programme to discover the
destination of water that is normally listed as
unaccounted for water (UFW). This is a new leak
reduction programme that involves the use of more
instrumentation to detect leaks.
-
The installation of
sensitive water meters to catchment tanks that
shut-off water being pumped to each tank just before
the tank overflows.
The NWC is confident that over
the past three years it has saved significant amounts
of funds by undertaking these measures, however, it is
not yet in a position to give specific figures.
Summary of ongoing
activities (2000) to conserve energy at some GOJ
ministries
At an Energy Coordinators
meeting of the GOJ that was held in October 2000, the
following were reported as separate efforts within the
stated ministries to improve energy efficiency:
Ministry of Transport
and Works
-
Embodiment of energy
conservation and environmental management into a
recently composed corporate plan for the ministry.
-
Planning to have energy
audits done on its buildings
-
Started to withdraw old and
inefficient buses (Transport Division) from service
but restricted because proper disposal (of buses)
mechanism is still to be established.
Ministry of Agriculture
-
Human monitoring system
established for lighting and air conditioning
-
Pumps used in irrigation
systems being retrofitted to achieve higher levels
of efficiency in pumping irrigation water.
-
Special debit cards being
used to curtail the purchase of petrol for ministry
vehicles
Ministry of Water and
Housing
-
Air conditioning operated
for only 9 hours per day. The fact that the ministry
is small and occupies a modern efficiently designed
building leaves little room for additional measures.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
-
Staff recently exposed to
in-house seminar on energy conservation.
-
Plans have been made to
test relevant areas for water and electricity leaks.
-
Appliances and air
conditioning units to be labeled.
Ministry of Education
and Culture
-
Tests for water leaks
ongoing
-
Old panels and circuit
breakers in the electrical system being replaced as
needed.
-
Arrangements being made to
discontinue the payment of certain electricity bills
incurred by other GOJ agencies that in some
circumstances occupy its buildings.
Ministry of Environment
and Lands
-
Environmental stewardship
guide (including energy conservation) developed by
ENACT for the ministry's use and later to be
introduced to other ministries.
-
Measures to combat climate
change being developed.
THE JAMAICA BUREAU OF
STANDARDS (JBS)
At present the Bureau is involved in the
following two main areas of energy conservation:
(1) Appliance Testing and
Labeling
(2) Fine tuning and promotion
of the Energy Efficiency Building Code, and
Solar Water Heater
Testing
The organization no longer has the capacity to
evaluate solar water heaters as it did up to the
mid-1990s. The Solar Energy Laboratory was established
in the mid-1980s out of a USAID/GOJ renewable energy
project that involved assistance to a number of GOJ
agencies to improve the country's human and technical
capacity to develop energy efficiency and renewable
energy projects in Jamaica.
The laboratory was capable of
assessing the performance of most of the components
including collectors and storage tanks associated with
solar water heaters. After its commissioning, the
Bureau undertook to randomly test water heaters from
local manufacturers or distributors and subsequently
make recommendations.
The Energy Efficiency
Building Code
The Jamaica Energy Efficiency Building Code (EEBC)
was installed as a code of practice in Jamaica in
1994. The supporting preliminary procedures including
the hosting of a steering committee that met monthly
at the JBS dates back to the 1980's and have involved
many notable professionals in the local building and
construction fraternity, including Mr. Marvin Goodman
(Architect), and Mr. O.P. Woodham (Engineer).
The document, which was
essentially prepared by the JBS steering committee,
also involves contributions from many local and
international experts in the area of low energy/energy
efficient building designs and concepts. It was first
produced in an imperial format and later modernized to
a metric format after sponsorship was secured from the
World Bank. After certain basic outstanding
requirements are satisfied in the future by the
Bureau, the code will be submitted to be formalized as
an Act by the legislative arm of the GOJ and will
henceforth become mandatory for adoption by the
building sector.
The EEBC document
consist of 223 pages and is divided into the following
two sections:
Section 1, is essentially the
code, and the contents are listed as prescriptive
requirements. It consists of 44 pages and the
prescriptive requirements are:
-
External Walls - (a) Small
Offices
(b) All Building Types
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Roofs - (a) Concrete Deck
(b) Pitched Frame
(c) Metal Deck
-
Lighting - (a) Illumination
Levels
(b) Lighting Controls
(c) Lighting Power Control Credits
(d) Fluorescent Lamp Ballasts
(e) Building Exterior Lighting Power Allowances
-
Building Interior
-
System Performance
Requirements
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Electric Power and
Distribution
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Ventilating and Air
Conditioning (VAC)
-
Ventilating and Air
Conditioning Equipment
-
Service Water Heating
Systems and Equipment
(a) Sizing of Systems
(b) Equipment Efficiency
(c) Piping Insulation
(d) Controls
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Auxiliary Systems
-
Energy Management
-
Whole Building Energy Cost
Budget Method
-
Definitions, Abbreviations,
Acronyms
Section 2, the guidelines, is
listed as Appendices. A preamble to this section
states that it discusses benefits of Energy Efficiency
standards in general and that of the Jamaican code of
practice. It further states that data presented
represents the experience of countries with well
established energy codes; results of an ASEAN project,
in South East Asia, and results of an analysis of
Jamaican office buildings, using the climate of
Kingston, as well as construction and energy costs
typical of Jamaica. The section is comprised of 139
pages and the contents are as follows:
-
Benefits of Energy
Standards
-
Principles of Energy Design
Process
-
Compliance Guidelines for
Whole-Building Energy Budgets and Energy Cost
budgets
-
Daylighting
-
Lighting
-
Electric Power and
Distribution
-
Ventilating and Air
Conditioning (VAC) Systems and Equipment
-
Service Water Heating
-
Operations and Maintenance
-
Definitions, Abbreviations,
Acronyms and Symbols
-
Conversion Tables
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Compliance Forms
HUMAN RESOURCES
DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING
There has been a pervasive problem of
inadequate human capacity in energy matters throughout
Latin America and the Caribbean for a long time as
compared with other regions of the world. The CAST
Energy Centre that was subsequently changed to the UTech Energy Centre in the mid 1990s was a leading
training institution in all aspects of energy after it
was assisted significantly under the USAID/GOJ energy
conservation/renewable energy project in the mid
1980s. Failure to continue to attract financing has
however, almost totally disabled the Centre.
The University of the
West Indies (UWI)
Most of the UWI's work in energy conservation
and renewable energy technologies are carried out
within its engineering faculty located on its Trinidad
Campus.
At its Mona campus in
Kingston, the faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences has
taken the initiative to lead the other faculties and
sub-agencies of the University in not only recognizing
the need for energy conservation but also to implement
its own measures to achieve energy efficiency in the
operations of some of its equipment and lighting
systems.
The latest proposal from the
faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences regarding energy
to the UWI management relates to the implementation of
a new post graduate course in Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy Technologies. This course is expected
to commence in the academic year 2000 - 2001.
Energy Conservation
Up until recently very little was done
consistently by either the faculty or the UWI
maintenance department, to introduce energy
conservation under any special or coordinated
programme although purchasing of energy efficient
lights including a range of fluorescent lamps were
always a priority. The Chemistry Department under the
leadership of Professor Tara Dasgupta recognized the
need to practice energy conservation more than five
years ago, and over a period of time joined forces
with the UWI's Electronic Unit to plan strategies to
deal with the problem.
Arising from the collaboration, all lecture theatres,
laboratories, and other rooms in the faculty are now
fitted with motion sensors that control both lighting
and air conditioning. In this regard, after the last
person leaves one of these rooms, followed by the
passing of a few seconds, all lighting and air
conditioning units automatically shut down. The system
also reverses itself appropriately.
This has enabled significant
savings to the faculty over the past two years, and
the programme is about to be extended to the rest of
the campus.
Renewable Energy
Technology
The UWI campus has experienced intermittent
periods of unstable power supply from the JPSCo over
the years, during which it has experienced different
levels of damage to assorted equipment. The Chemistry
and Physics departments decided to attempt to solve
this problem by pursuing a joint project to install a
photovoltaic (PV) system that would supply power
uninterrupted to sensitive equipment including
computers in both departments.
Known as the inter-faculty
photovoltaic energy project, the project was
implemented in 1998 after funding amounting to
US$22,000.00 was secured from the Canadian Green Fund.
The system is rated at 700 watts and consists of 12 -
60watt PV modules; inverter, power conditioning unit
and deep cycle storage batteries, all mounted on the
roof of the Chemistry Department main building.
Many of the sensitive
equipment are now powered by the system but because of
the rapid expansion being undertaken in the
departments there is now need to expand the system.
The Electronics department installed the PV system,
and continues to maintain it. After two years of
operation, it remains almost problem free, apart from
a few forays with lightening which is being addressed
with the installation of lightening arresters.
The faculty has only recently prepared a new project
document to establish a 1MW PV system similar to the
existing one, to be able to satisfy all the
electricity needs of the faculty. For this,
US$300,000.00 will be required. The Canadian Green
Fund, encouraged by the success of the smaller
project, has already donated US$100,000.00 to the
venture, and the project document has been submitted
to other funding agencies including the Environmental
Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), in an attempt to secure
the balance.
The University of
Technology, Jamaica (UTech)
This institution, which is the only tertiary
level technical training organization capable of
granting degrees in engineering and architecture in
Jamaica; has been offering training in energy subject
areas through its Energy Centre for a relatively long
period of time. The Energy Centre was established in
1983, as the CAST Energy Centre, while the institution
was still a diploma granting college known as the
College of Arts, Sciences and Technology (CAST). In
the mid-1980s the Centre flourished having attracted a
number of assignments (with accompanying funds) to
pursue selected Research and Development activities
primarily in the area of solar water heating. At the
same time the Centre was able to adequately satisfy
all the needs for training full and part time students
in various areas of energy under normal course
requirements of the engineering faculty of the
institution.
At the best of times the
Energy Centre had a staff of at least six persons and
a wide range of functional equipment capable of
supporting the execution of a variety of projects in
energy. This is attested to by the preponderance of
energy projects undertaken by final year students in
the electrical and mechanical engineering faculties in
the decade 1985-1995. It is also notable that the
Centre was always able to host at least two training
courses per year, with at least one, highlighting
energy conservation.
Energy Activities
In May 2000, the UTech Energy
Centre hosted a one-week training workshop. This was
the first training workshop held by the Centre since
it hosted a workshop in energy conservation in 1998 in
conjunction with Global Energy Services of the USA.
Training
At present the engineering faculty of UTech
offers limited options for students in degree
programmes under electrical and mechanical engineering
to pursue energy courses. In mechanical engineering, a
course entitled Energy Production Systems is offered
as a sixty-hour module and about 50% of it covers the
sub-topic entitled Renewable Energy Resources. Energy
conservation is included under this sub-topic.
In electrical engineering,
energy conservation is offered as a 90 hours course
module, while renewable energy is offered as a 20
hours module to undergraduate degree students. Diploma
students continue to have the option to choose
"special projects" topics in one of the following:
Energy Audits, Cogeneration, Solar Cooling and
Photovoltaics; but in recent times interest in all of
these subject areas have waned because of the decline
of the Energy Centre.
University Centre for
Environmental Development (UWICED)
This organization was established in the early
1990's by the University of the West Indies (UWI) in
its response to the growing concerns of the global
community about the threats to the world environment.
UWICED is funded partially by the UWI but earnings are
made otherwise to ensure its sustainability from one
of its portfolio functions of administering grant and
loan funds to approved projects, on behalf of
international and regional bilateral agencies. In
addition, the Centre devises projects, acquires funds
from external sources and undertakes them with its own
human resources.
Although its main focus is
environmental and its closest associates are
organizations pursuing activities directly concerned
with sustainable development through environmental
mitigation, its focus on national energy matters was
always inevitable. This is because the whole question
of climate change, which poses so many challenges to
world environment, is all related to the use of
energy. In fact, environmental organizations such as
UWICED are now resigned to assisting in ensuring that
conventional energy sources are phased out as much as
possible in the future, in order to arrest the rapid
build-up of greenhouse gases.
Sited on the UWI Mona campus, UWICED, which is headed
by Professor Al Binger, has become a fertile source of
imaginative project concepts in renewable energy and
energy conservation for Jamaica and the rest of the
Caribbean sub-region, over the past few years.
Principal among its contributions in this area is a
concerted effort to provide a solution to the energy
concerns of the UWI Mona campus. In this regard UWICED
has made proposals for the UWI's administration to
initiate a cogeneration project to satisfy most of its
energy needs in the near future. The project would
ensure that its energy take from the JPSCo would be
reduced significantly, and at the same time the
institution would be able to continue to offer quality
tertiary training to students at much lower individual
cost.
The UWI campus which includes
the Hospital complex, teaching faculties, residence
halls and maintenance areas, consumes approximately
2MW of electricity for lighting etc, and approximately
3MW for thermal services including air conditioning.
UWICED has in fact proposed two cogeneration scenarios
for the campus; one relies on the use of Diesel
generators fitted into a very efficient mode of
operation while the other involves the production and
use of methane from primarily organic wastes. While
the design of the latter is still being fine tuned,
the first, which is described as a combined cycle
thermal energy plant operation, is summarized as
follows:
Two generators, fueled by
heavy fuel oil are to be installed to directly satisfy
a part of electricity requirements of the campus, and
the rest sold to JPSCo. Exhaust heat from their
operation is used to produce hot water and steam that
drives a specially designed turbine, which provides
more power for use on campus. Exhaust heat from this
turbine is used to operate absorption chillers, which
satisfies the air conditioning needs of the campus.
Reduced loads at nights and on weekends will
facilitate the production of ice to further enhance
the efficiency of the air conditioning system
proposed.
Other Activities
UWICED has
assumed a leadership role that is projected to move
the Caribbean to the forefront of energy research and
engineering. This is to be achieved by the process of
institutional and systemic capacity building. Its
liaison with regional energy organizations such as
OLADE, Caribbean Programme of Action for Climate
Change (CEPACC), and the Caribbean Energy Information
System (CEIS), has enabled it to play a part in the
design and execution of a number of regional energy
projects. These include:
(1) The Establishment of an
energy efficiency programme for the Caribbean
This programme is to come on
stream by early 2001 with sponsorship from the UNDP
and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
(1) Establishment of a
Graduate Certificate Course in Energy and the
Environment at the UWI.
This should come on stream by
2002 and is to be sponsored by UWI, OLADE and the
University of Calgary. UWICED is at present designing
the course content administration procedures.
(3) Design of an Ocean Thermal
Conversion (OTEC) project for the Caribbean.
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