Jamaica Market Briefing
London Economics, November 2007
The Jamaica market briefing provides a concise overview of the country power sector, providing up to date information on regulation, generation, transmission, market operation, distribution, and retail supply; a list of market participants in each market segment is provided as well as a list of useful websites.
- Jamaica
- Macro Economics Indicators
- Electricity Sector Statistics
- Useful Links
- Vietnam Snapshot
- Generation
- Transmission & Market Operation
- Distribution & Supply
- One of the highest energy intensity rates in Latin America and the Caribbean largely due to the high energy use of the bauxite and alumina sectors
- Highly dependent on imported oil (92%) for electricity generation
- Lack of indigenous energy resources and low utilization of available renewable sources
- The All Island Electricity License 2001 gave the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) the exclusive right to transmit, distribute, and supply electricity throughout the Island of Jamaica for a period of 20 years
- The Energy Policy 2006-2020 goals include among others, (1) to ensure stable and adequate energy supplies at the least economic cost, (2) to diversify the energy base
and promote the development of indigenous energy resources, (3) to encourage efficiency in energy production, conversion and use, and (4) to make electricity available to the remaining areas of the island
- A new regulatory policy was issued to guide the process for the addition of new generating capacity
- Under the proposed Electricity Act, new generation capacity to come on stream shall
be subject to competitive and transparent bidding process
- The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) was mandated by the Government to develop and facilitate private sector investments in renewable energy sources and to coordinate the government’s energy efficiency program
- The government targets that renewables will supply 15% of energy by 2015
- Energy rates are set by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) after comprehensive
reviews of JPS’ tariff structure. The last review was done in 2004 and the next such review is due in 2009
- As of Feb 2006, approximately 90% of households island-wide have access to electricity
- Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is a vertically-integrated utility company that engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Jamaica
- JPS, which owns and operates 28 generating units and 54 substations, is 80% owned by Marubeni Caribbean Power Holdings and the rest by the Government of Jamaica and a small group of shareholders
- JPS owns 640 MW of capacity and purchases approximately 230 MW from independent power producers (IPPs)
- JPS has agreements to purchase energy capacity and net energy output from
Jamaica Energy Partners (until Feb 2026), Jamaica Private Company Ltd (until Jan
2018), Jamaica Aluminum Company Limited (until Dec 2019), and Wigton Wind Farm Limited (until May 2024)
- JPS owns 64% of the total installed capacity in Jamaica. The rest is owned by alumina plants, sugar factories, and commercial companies, which can sell excess capacity to JPS
- Jamaica Energy Partners is an IPP since 1995 and supplies 124 MW to JPS
- Jamaica Private Power (JPP) is 43% owned by CMS Energy Corp. On June 2007,
Ashmore Energy International announced its agreement to acquire CMS Energy’s ownership stake at JPP
- Wigton Wind Farm Ltd. (WWF), which has a wind farm with a capacity of 20.7 MW, is owned by the PCJ. As of July 2007, WWF was for sale.
- In 2006, the average electricity price was JMD$ 17/kWh or US$ 0.258/kWh
- JPS is the monopoly of the transmission and distribution/retail businesses in the whole Island of Jamaica
- JPS owns approximately 14,000 kilometers of transmission and distribution lines
- JPS serves 560,000 customers
- Manufacturing and industrial companies that have self-generators can wheel electricity from their own generation plant along JPS’ transmission and distribution
network so long as no third party sale is involved
- High system losses exist (from 16% in 2001 to 20% in 2004 ) which reduced system
efficiency to about 22%. The government aims to encourage JPS to reduce its system loss to below 15% of the generated power over the next few years
- The Rural Electricity Programme (REP) now establishes the electricity distribution
infrastructure into communities that are uneconomic to the private power companies.
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