7 minute read
Interview - Jamaica Energy Partners
DEVELOPING A GREEN
REGION
Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Cecil Gordon, Chief Technical Officer at Jamaica Energy Partners (JEP) Group, about plans to reduce carbon emissions, the company’s wide range of community support, and being one a regional leader in renewable energy.
By Izzy Moss
Jamaica Energy Partners (JEP) Group
is a Jamaican power and energy solutions company. Operations at JEP began in September 1995, with a 74.16 MW diesel-fired power facility. Today, JEP has a total generation capacity of 250 MW across their Doctor Bird I and II power barges and onshore generation facilities at West Kingston Power Partners (WKPP) and Jamaica Private Power Company (JPPC), making the company the largest Independent Power Producer (IPP) in Jamaica. The Group has 30% of the island’s installed firm capacity, and now supplies 20% of Jamaica’s total energy demand thanks to an increase in renewable capacity.
THE ERA OF ELECTRIC
JEP is currently in the process of conducting a major overhaul of its generating capacity, pivoting from the burning of heavy fuel to natural gas. “Shifting our emphasis to natural gas would make a significant contribution to reducing our carbon emissions and contributing to a cleaner environment,” says Cecil Gordon, Chief Technical Officer of JEP. “Our plants are already designed to enable that conversion. All that remains is for us to get the green light from the government, with progress on the project having stalled following the onset of COVID-19. Despite that, we remain optimistic that once the shift to natural gas has been achieved, it will allow us to reduce our production costs, and, in turn, to minimize the price of energy for our customers.”
Following in the footsteps of its parent company, InterEnergy Group, JEP has begun rolling out electric vehicle (EV) chargers across Jamaica. “We’ve started installing roughly 60 EV chargers across the country,” says Mr. Gordon. “In the very near future, we’re expecting to see rapid growth for electric vehicles. We’re now looking at several other acquisition projects to acquire renewable energy facilities, both within Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. Our final objective is to become greener and cleaner.”
A UNIQUE LANDSCAPE
A highly regulated energy sector presents suppliers like JEP with a set of unique challenges. “You can’t bring new capacity to the grid, whether that’s renewable, gas, or other-
MR CECIL GORDON, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, JAMAICA ENERGY PARTNERS GROUP
HALLE SALMON, PROJECT ENGINEER
wise, without either informal certification or a national bid,” explains Mr. Gordon. “The government has an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), designed to communicate their desired mix of the generating capacity. For instance, they might indicate that there’s need for 100250 MW of renewable energy, with specific quotas for the amount of solar or wind energy required. Alternatively, the national bid process invites different private companies to submit bids in MW for renewable and fossil fuel energy generation. We have a specific team that looks at all these opportunities, conducting research with an aim to secure as much renewable energy as we can manage. We communicate closely with our contractors and manufacturers to identify who we can best work with on any given project.”
GREENER AND CLEANER
Underlying JEP’s commitment to becoming greener is the company’s long-running partnership with the Jamaica Environmental Trust. “The Trust is an NGO whose mission is to educate people in Jamaica about the need to protect the environment,” explains Mr. Gordon. “A representative of JEP always sits on the board of the Trust, lending support to their objectives however we can. We’ve sought to champion the Trust through our corporate social responsibility strategy, most significant through its school environment program. As part of that, they are able to go into schools and teach youngsters about the
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need for responsibility with regards to the environment.”
Another beneficiary of JEP’s commitment has been the Montego Bay Marine Park (MBMP), comprising just shy of 16 square kilometers of protected marine environment. “We support the upkeep of the park, helping to protect its unique environmental resources,” explains Mr. Gordon. “To date, we planted over 5,000 trees (including 2,100 in 2021 alone) as part of the Forestry Department’s National Tree-Planting Initiative, alongside our annual support for beach clean-ups across the island. We also take an active role towards assisting other companies that want to practice energy conservation – be that through guidance on effective donations to key organizations, or tips on reducing their energy demands and carbon emissions.”
CHAMPIONS OF THE COMMUNITY
“Moreover, we offer scholarships every year to students attending secondary and tertiary institutions, across a range of disciplines: from medicine and engineering to architecture and journalism,” says Mr. Gordon. “We also run a five-to-seven-year scholarship for primary to high school students, and a School Feeding Program. Unfortunately, many students in Jamaica don’t have access to a healthy, nutritional breakfast. They’re hungry when they arrive at school, and that in turn impacts on their learning intensity. Thankfully, our program has been able to help over 600 students in the last year, the result of a total of $50 million that we’ve committed in funding since the start of our educational pursuits.”
Mirroring its commitment to community support, JEP boasts an impressive internal training department, designed to equip the company’s employees with the tools to maximize their own potential. “Our Education Assistance Program enables employees to improve on their educational background as a means of self-development,” explains Mr. Gordon. “Likewise, we also run a scholarship program for the children of our employees, awarded to high achievers at primary and secondary levels.”
“We’ve also worked with Hospitals, and with the Jamaican Institute of Sports (INSPORTS),” says Mr. Gordon. “We believe that health and wellness are two important criteria to measure the welfare of our people. Recently, we’ve embarked on a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to rescue what we call, ‘at risk members of the community’. USAID sponsored us to identify individuals that we could put into a six-month behavioral modification training program, known as the Community Intervention Program. With courses covering some of our key skills areas, including mechanical and electrical engineering, it presents participants who complete the program with an excellent opportunity for employment, both generally, and within our Group.”
LEADING COUNTRY
Moving ahead, JEP’s five-year plan looks to point the way towards the company’s continued success. “Firstly, it’s our hope to continue growing as an organization,” says Mr. Gordon. “With 250 MW on the grid, our aim is to increase that as much as possible in support of the environment, with an intention to burn only natural gas. To support the introduction of renewable energy to that grid, be it wind and solar, we’re hoping to expand our storage capacity to guarantee a consistent and reliable power supply.”
“Within the next to ten to twelve years, we know we should be at almost net-zero emissions,” says Mr. Gordon. “We’re continually training and preparing our staff to be ready for new technologies as they emerge, and to ensure they’re comfortable and knowledgeable about renewable energy, and E-mobility. In November, we ran a competition in the E-mobility sector, challenging schools around the country to put together an advert to help launch our educational campaign. It’s our goal to continue supporting Jamaica as a regional leader in renewable energy.” c
