Page 8 - CE JOURNAL FEB 2024 ISSUE 20

REAL TIME

MONITORING OF

SELF-GENERATORS

By Antonio Johnson, Network Planning Engineer, Jamaica Public Service Co. Ltd

BACKGROUND
Plugging into the sun has never been as easy as it is today.
People across the Caribbean have been using the resource that
we all have in abundance to generate power for their own use. In
fact, estimates are that there is around 1.2GW of installed Solar
PV capacity according to the International Renewable Energy
Agency (IRENA). A Self-Generator is a term not-so-often used
to describe people who generate power for their own use. The
energy source Self-Generators would frequently be found using
is Solar PV, however it is not limited to this, as Wind and other
alternative or renewable sources can be used. These people
may or may not necessarily export or sell power back to the
Utility Grid.

Jamaica is one such country that has been leading the charge in
using Renewable Energy. The Government of Jamaica, through
the Ministry of Science, Energy, Technology and Transport, in
2012 had implemented a 20% renewable energy target. To aid
in facilitating this target, the Government created a Net Billing
Program, which allowed its participants to generate their
own power and sell the excess to the Grid. The program was
launched as a 2-year pilot program, hoping that by the end of
this period a total of 12.8MW, representing 2% of a 640MW peak
at the time, would be installed. This however did not turn out
as planned, even after extending the program by 1 year due to
low participation. In fact, by 2015 only 1.4MW of capacity was
installed. A review of the Net Billing Program was done, which
highlighted shortcomings as well as various recommendations
on how to move forward.

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