EDITORIAL - Fingers crossed for Mr Paulwell

Hopefully, there will be no need to test Phillip Paulwell's commitment to ensuring that there are no more hiccups in the bidding process for a new power plant aimed at delivering electricity significantly cheaper to Jamaica's burdened consumers.

Mr Paulwell last week declared that another delay would be entertained only "over my dead body". So far, it seems he might just get away with the promise.

But these are early days yet. And given the incompetence with which the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) and the energy ministry have managed the energy question over several years, we advise Minister Paulwell to keep his fingers crossed. So, too, should all consumers. We will.

It is not Mr Paulwell's fate that is our primary concern, although we wish that he comes to no harm. The real issue is that the Jamaican economy can afford no further delays.

At a cost of around US$0.42 per kilowatt-hour, electricity in Jamaica is among the most expensive in this region. Indeed, high electricity cost helps to make Jamaican industries uncompetitive and is a major drag on the economy.

Part of the problem is that a large chunk of our electricity-generating capacity is old and inefficient. More critically, our power plants are fired by expensive oil.

The most important factor in lowering the cost of power and giving the Jamaican economy a fighting chance, therefore, is for more efficient facilities that use a cheaper mix of fuels.

For more than a decade, Jamaica procrastinated over what that mix should be. When we finally settled on natural gas, we bungled the bidding exercise, to the point of casting shadows over the integrity of the process.

Last week, after the long chaos, the OUR received five bids to its request for proposals for 360 megawatts of power. One of those bids, the OUR reported, is for 478 megawatts of electricity, approximately a third more than proposed in the OUR's RFP. That, nonetheless, is in the ball park of the agency's request when it first went to market nearly three years ago.

Sketchy information

Notably, this bidder, based on the so far sketchy information provided by the OUR, is the only one to offer natural gas as the sole fuel source. The others propose heavy fuel oil plus natural gas.

Nothing in the public domain so far provides the basis for an informed assessment of the bids. The OUR, however, has undertaken to name a preferred bidder in the next month and a half.

We insist that the regulator keep that timetable and that the evaluation is not only fair but transparent, including, at the end, an opportunity for review. Consumers must know all issues that impacted the final decision.

Ostensibly, a recent agreement by the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) - the monopoly distributor of electricity - with two firms for a front-end engineering study to allow the delivery of compressed natural gas at its 120-megawatt Bogue plant is distinct and separate from the OUR request.

But in the context of Jamaica's energy issues, the matters can't, it seems to us, be completely isolated. The OUR, therefore, must say if, or how, the JPS initiative impacted its assessment and decision.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.