Gov’t to Start Granting Electric Power Wheeling Licences July

Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Phillip Paulwell says he intends to start granting licences for electric power wheeling in July.

In his Budget Debate presentation in Parliament on Wednesday, April 24, the Minister, noted that this is another policy initiative of the administration “to make our energy sector more robust and realise efficiencies”.

He explained that “wheeling” is the use of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) grid to transmit power from a self-generating entity in one location to itself in another for a fee.

“This is a benefit to those businesses, who generate their own electricity, because it means that if that company has excess generating capacity in one location, wheeling allows it to use that excess in another of its locations,” he said.

The Minister noted that the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has indicated that the rate will vary between US$50 to US$175 per megawatt-kilometre per month, and that the final rate will be determined after public consultation.

By Alecia Smith-Edwards, JIS Reporter