ENERGY Caribbean newsletter (April 2014 • Issue no. 72)

ST VINCENT
The future: multiple
energy sources
Already hydro supplies 18% of St Vincent’s power
With no oil nor gas of its
own, St Vincent and the
Grenadines is turning to
renewable energy. It already produces
18% of its power from hydro, according
to Thornley Myers, CEO of St Vincent
Electricity Services (total installed
capacity 42MW). Solar also makes a
modest contribution.
Five other member utilities of the
Caribbean Electricity Utility Services
Corporation, the “trade union” for power
providers in the region, have installed RE
generation systems to complement their
diesel and fuel oil facilities: the Jamaica
Public Service Company, Lucelec in St
Lucia, Barbados Light and Power, St Kitts
Electricity (a government department),
and Aqualectra in Curaçao. Myers sees
others moving slowly but surely in this
direction.
RE installation costs are high, and the
intermittency of all but two RE sources
– hydro and geothermal – will always
require a more reliable baseload system.
But RE allows greater price stability,
Myers observes. “Fuel prices change
every month now, based on the price
of oil.” There is also a foreign exchange
saving from reduced oil imports, and
as an indigenous resource RE offers a
measure of “energy independence”.
Then there’s the CO 2
reduction factor.
Carbon emissions are comparatively
low in the Caribbean (the IDB puts St
Vincent’s CO 2
discharges at 48,805 tons
a year), but Myers supports reduction.
“If we demonstrate a commitment to
lowering our greenhouse gas emissions,
other countries will say, if these small
states are committed to this exercise,
why shouldn’t we be trying too?”
While RE will grow, Myers predicts,
multiple energy sources will be the
pattern in the Caribbean, with the
fossil fuel contribution coming from
gas. Roland Fisher, CEO of Gasfin
Development SA, has been trying
to enlist St Vincent as a client of
the proposed small LNG train to be
established at La Brea in Trinidad.
“We were receptive,” Myers says,
“but the key question will always be
cost. Price stability is first and foremost
in our considerations.” Consumers
in St Vincent presently pay US$0.39
per kilowatt hour (kwh). “If we can
import gas at a price that lowers that to
US$0.25, we would be very happy. Of
course, if it were US$0.15, we would be
even happier!”
SUSTAINABILITY
BG T&T comes
clean on CO 2
And prepares plans on emission reduction and local content
Corporate contributions to global
warming are a delicate subject, but
BG Trinidad and Tobago frankly
states in its most recent Sustainability
Review (2012/2013) that its greenhouse
gas emissions during the former year
amounted to 45,526 tonnes. Flaring
accounted for 42.08%. Fuel gas usage
contributed 22.82%, diesel usage 18.24%,
venting 10.97%, “fugitive” emissions
5.08%, and aircraft fuel 0.81%.
The 2012 figure was a 2% reduction
on 2011. Upgrading BG T&T’s Beachfield
blowdown system reduced emissions
from flaring by as much as 76%. Greater
use of gas generators and less of diesel as
a primary fuel source reduced emissions
by 12%. Imposing a fixed flight schedule
for aircraft cut that source by 25% and
lopped US$1.9 million off the fuel bill.
However, gas compression facilities
installed at BG T&T’s Central block on
land in 2013, and those to be completed
on the Hibiscus platform in its North
Coast Marine Area 1 block in 2014, will
“significantly increase” emissions from
those sources.
BG T&T is the country’s second largest
provider of natural gas (25% of the total),
and is not happy that its greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions will be rising
again. It pledges to develop an energy
management plan for emissions (methane
and nitrous oxide as well as CO 2
).
A UK company, Process Improvement,
has already undertaken “an energy
efficiency survey of all existing facilities
to determine how efficiently energy
is being consumed and managed.”
Sixteen ways to enhance efficiency were
identified, which BG T&T says “could
result in potential savings of over 100,000
tonnes of emissions.”
A technical review of the existing
“GHG accounting and reporting process”
has been undertaken, which the company
believes could “help improve the overall
accuracy and quality of data reported.”
Assessment of “fugitive” discharges
(attributable to leaks and other irregular
gas emissions from equipment) has been
reviewed in the light of “changes in
operational design.”
In another area of national concern,
local content, BG T&T claims in its report
that it is falling in line and “developing a
local content strategy.” Energy minister
Kevin Ramnarine recently revealed that
“serious consideration is being given to
legislating local content ... as has been
done in Norway.”
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