Ministry of Energy and Mining Moves to Take Full Control of National Energy Related Initiatives

The Ministry of Energy and Mining today (May 28) hosted a special Public Sector Energy Stakeholders meeting in a bid to encourage more communication and collaboration among the key players in Jamaica’s energy sector.
Minister James Robertson and the stakeholders identified and discussed ongoing energy related initiatives being undertaken by public agencies as well as proposed initiatives to come on stream in the near future. Approximately 42 officials representing a number of public sector bodies, including the Office of the Prime Minister, Planning Institute of Jamaica, Office of Utilities Regulation, Ministry of Transport and Works and the National Environment and Planning Agency were in attendance.
The Minister also used the occasion to give the attendees an update on work in progress on the National Energy Policy, the Bauxite Alumina Taskforce, the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) Project and the Petrojam Refinery Upgrade Project.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Marcia Forbes, said that this was the first in a series of meetings “which will enable the Ministry and its stakeholders to keep abreast of each others energy initiatives and where possible pool intellectual, capital and material resources so that Jamaica’s energy sector can progress in a more structured, integrated and systematic way”.
The government is currently in the process of a full review of national energy projects and initiatives and has so far developed a list of 83 initiatives and projects. These have been categorized and include: Policies, Electricity Generation Expansion, Energy Conservation and Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources, as well as Energy Data Base and Planning.
Key outcomes from the meeting include a greater understanding on the part of the stakeholders of the Ministry’s role in the development of Energy Related Projects and the establishment of a mechanism for improved coordination of projects and communication within the Energy Sector. To this end the Ministry will be circulating its list of projects to all the stakeholders who will in turn provide electronic copies of their energy initiatives to the Ministry.
Additionally it was agreed that over the next three months, the group will meet once per month to have dialogue and give updates.