Energy Audits Being Conducted At 140 Primary Schools

KINGSTON — The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) has commenced a series of energy audits, which will involve some 140 primary schools islandwide, Group Managing Director, Dr. Mario Anderson, has informed

He made the disclosure while addressing Thursday's (November 10) inaugural Dr. Raymond Wright Memorial Lecture, at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), in St. Andrew.

Dr. Anderson informed that the audits, expected to cost over $11 million, form part of a policy directive from the Ministry of Energy and Mining, under whose purview the PCJ falls, for the agency to review energy efficiency processes in government buildings and facilities.

This is being done in an effort to decrease the country’s energy expenditure, he explained.

Dr. Anderson pointed out that the audits would be undertaken over the next three months, in collaboration with the Ministries of Energy and Mining, and Education.

"The audit activities will seek to look at how the schools use energy, and the purposes for which they use it. So, we will look and see the type of bulbs used. We’re going to look and see if they have any sort of heater system that they have to use, how they use this, and the times they use it," he outlined.

Dr. Anderson said once the results of the audits have been completed and submitted, the details are expected to indicate how to best improve energy usage in the schools. He added that the PCJ would undertake to facilitate infrastructure improvement at the institutions, using resources from its energy fund, in order to enhance energy management within in the schools.

He said that the exercise is also being undertaken within the health sector, pointing  to work done with  agencies and hospitals. He added that audit requests have also come from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

"Once we finish one of the projects, especially in the schools, we will then move on to the next set, because we have a lot to do,” Dr. Anderson noted.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Hillary Alexander, who also spoke at the Lecture, indicated that the Government spent more than $1 billion importing some 20 million barrels of oil in 2010.

She also advised that alternative energy production last year yielded the equivalent of 816,000 barrels of oil, which she contended was “not an insignificant saving to our fuel import bill."

Organised by the PCJ, the Dr. Raymond Wright Memorial Lecture has been inaugurated in memory of the late former Group Managing Director, who passed away in July after prolonged illness. It is slated to be held annually.

Dr. Wright joined the then newly formed Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica Group of Companies in 1979 as Director of Exploration, and rose through the ranks to be appointed Group Managing Director in 1994, a position he held for 11 years.

By Douglas Mcintosh, JIS Reporter