Residents of Central Manchester Receive Electricity

Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining Minister, Hon. Phillip Paulwell, says National Energy Solutions Limited (NESol) is currently developing the appropriate expertise to enable the delivery of electricity, generated from renewable energy sources, to the remaining 2.5 per cent of the country, yet to receive the service.

This, against the background of what he contends is the cost associated with the provision of electricity for persons, “furthest from the (national power) grid,” where it is “most expensive to do (using) the traditional means.”

“We realize that (the) conventional way of delivering energy (generated from petroleum products) won’t be able to suffice for the remaining 2.5 per cent. So, very soon,…it will be electricity generated from the sun, wind and, in some cases, from hydropower (water),” the Minister adds.

He was speaking during Friday’s (November 6) commissioning of electricity service provided for residents of Lowe Street, Mountain Pass (Banana Ground), in Central Manchester, by NESol, at a cost of $4 million.

Mr. Paulwell informed that service provided along Lowe Street represented the123^rd service extension commissioned since 2012, when he was appointed Energy Minister, and was “the most in any four-year period.”

He said islandwide electricity coverage currently stands at 97.5 per cent, which is above the minimum global average of 75 per cent.

“We are (however) not going to rest until…every single nook and cranny has electricity. That is the mandate that (the Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller) has given us…and we are going to make it happen. We…are going to make sure that the (remaining) 2.5 per cent is done,” Mr. Paulwell assured.

Lowe Street’s power installations, which will benefit 25 families, also include the erection of street lights.

The provision was welcomed by National Security Minister and Central Manchester Member of Parliament, Hon. Peter Bunting, who also spoke at the ceremony.

In describing the rural electrification programme as a “phenomenal success”, Mr. Bunting said “the fact that we can provide 97 per cent of our citizens in as mountainous and geographically dispersed, a country as Jamaica, particularly rural Jamaica,…really speaks to the vision of (successive administrations).”

“One important benefit of (providing) electricity…(is that) it is going to improve the security for all the citizens living on (this) street. In addition (it) will (also) improve their access to the use of things like tablet computers,” he added

For his part, NESol Acting Managing Director, Garfield Daley, gave the agency’s undertaking “to ensure that the mandate…that Jamaica is 100 per cent electrified…is accomplished.”

“We have the technical competency, we have the technical team, we have the managerial team, we have the contracting team, and when we put it together, we say (that) we are ready to do it,” he assured.

Other speakers included Mandeville Mayor and Concillor for the Bellefield Division of the Manchester Parish Council, where Lowe Street is situated, Brenda Ramsay, and resident, Beverley Bartley, both of whom also expressed gratitude for the provision of electricity.

An agency of the Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining Ministry, National Energy Solutions Limited, replaced Rural Electrification Programme Limited, following Cabinet’s approval for the expanded mandate and name change of the latter entity.

NESol is currently responsible for creating new energy solutions to expand the reach of electricity supply to rural areas and minimize unauthorized connections to the national grid in urban communities, through the build-out of renewable energy at the domestic level.