Dear Editor,

So we wait. The much-heralded Electricity Sector Enterprise Team (ESET), which was formed in June of 2014 to, among other things, oversee the urgent replacement of baseload generation with a more efficient plant that utilises lower-cost fuel and provides reliable and affordable electricity to the country, has apparently completed much of its work. Yet, we are still left in the dark regarding any progress or any tangible results regarding the actual timelines to replace baseload generation with a more efficient plant.

So far, there have been many great pronouncements, but we have heard them all before over the past 20 years; and still we wait.

However, what is even more troubling this time around is the deafening silence as to concrete milestones. In reality there are none.

In addition, the fact that the Jamaican energy economy has been handed over to at least one very tenuous arrangement is a major cause for concern. The pronouncement that 140MW of energy will be provided by an ethane cogeneration plant is interesting to say the least. The company slated to bring ethane to Jamaica has absolutely no experience in ethane shipments. They have no active ethane-exporting terminals anywhere in the world and have no experience supplying ethane to power plants anywhere on earth. Yet, a large part of our energy mix relies on them.

The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Liquefied Natural Gas project is nowhere near setting timelines, much less achieving them, and the JPS Bogue project continues to languish.

In short, one must now wonder if ESET is much ado about nothing.

I applaud the recent announcement by GraceKennedy to reduce their reliance on the grid and encourage more businesses to follow suit. There really is no end in sight to high energy prices in Jamaica, but there is much talk.

Mark Handy

handy-mark@hotmail.com