While Jamaicans rejoice as the prospect of
paying for their Light bills via JPS Co (Jamaica Public Service Company) PAYG
(Pay as You Go) Prepaid Power System as described in my blog article
entitled “JPS
Co's Prepaid Power now in Jamaica - How @myJPSonline PAYG means a Digital Meter
with smartphone App for 5 KWh Advances”, the GOJ still has a huge monster
of a problem.
I am of course referring to the defective Day
burning streetlights in Jamaica, many of which have defective photo-sensors and
are on in the daytime as per the investigation in the article “Street-Light
Stress - Billions of Dollars Burnt by Malfunctioning Lamps”, Published
Sunday April 26, 2015 by Tyrone Thompson, The
Jamaica Gleaner.
The problem has resurfaced as the OUR (Office of Utilities
Regulation) is claiming that 11,000 street lights are staying on 24 hours each
day for the past six (6) months, resulting in the Ministry of Local Government
having to fork out some JA$3 billion to pay for the wasted electricity.
That 11,000 streetlight is roughly about 12% of 93,000
streetlights that fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Local
Government. It also translates to JA$104 million in property tax revenues and
thousands of kilowatt-hours of energy down the drain
The JPS Co of course, is claiming that this is false,
questioning the methodology that the OUR used to determine that figure. JPS Co claims
that it had repaired some 27,698 malfunctioning street lights islandwide in
2014.
This included the so-called day burning streetlights but
their ability to repair them is being constrained because the Ministry of Local
Government is slow to pay their Electricity bills.
In short, it’s a chicken vs the Egg scenario or a Catch 22
situation. JPS Can't fix these day burning streetlight as it does have the
money to effect repairs because the Ministry of Local Government isn’t paying
their electivity bills on time.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Local Government is refusing to
pay their electricity bills, claiming that they're not paying for the electricity
wasted by the day-burning streetlights. Not to mention just not paying their electricity
bill on time for electricity actually being used by the GOJ (Government of
Jamaica).
JPS and OUR
Day Burning Streetlight Problem – JA$3 billion dollar problem Part II
This is the same problem that was highlighted back in
November 2011 by JPS Co (Jamaica Public
Service Company) Corporate Communications Manager Winsome Callum as reported in
my blog article
entitled “Alternative
Energy Contract for JPS Co Streetlight Upgrade Coming - JPS Co Winsome Callum's
Bourne Supremacy”.
Since January 2014, a contractor named Green Energy RG
(Green RG Management LLC) had been retrofitting some streetlight, converting them
to LED in Clarendon, Kingston and St. Andrew and St. Catherine as stated in my blog article
entitled “Green
Energy RG installing 5000 Solar Powered LED Streetlights in Jamaica - Local
Government's the Gangster Squad from West of Memphis towards a more Energy
Efficient GOJ”.
However the JPS Co has had to contend with the problem of thieves
using the Streetlight to power their Speaker systems whenever they throw a street
dance as well as criminals who destroy them to robe persons passing on what would
normally be a well lit roadway as explained in the article “Light Thieves Target Streetlights”,
Published Thursday October 31, 2013, The
Jamaica Gleaner and “Streetlights
being used to steal electricity”, published Wednesday, October 30, 2013, The Jamaica Observer.
So the argument aside, what can be done about this problem?
Actually we already have a solution at hand.
JPS Co vs OUR in
Day Burning Streetlights – How CMI and UTECH Engineering can solve the problem
The solution really is to get CMI (Caribbean Maritime
Institute) and UTECH (University of Technology) Engineering student to survey
and retrofit these disputed streetlight to LED ) Light Emitting Diode).
Some two hundred (200) of these streetlights along the
Palisados Highway from the Norman Manley International Airport to Rockfort and
Port Royal in East Kingston have been upgraded to LED (Light Emitting Diodes)
Streetlights by the engineers at the CMI (Caribbean Maritime Institute) back in
December 2014 as reported in my blog article
entitled “200
Palisados Streetlights upgrade to LED Lightbulbs by CMI, JPS - How 93,000 Streetlights
and Traffic Lights can go off-Grid using Solar and Wind Power”.
Back then, I’d suggested the idea of procuring an
alternative Energy Contractor to retrofit the streetlights with Solar Panels
and Batteries so as to take them off the grid completely. The retrofit would
not only fix the problem for defective photocells but also upgrade the light to
LED (Light Emitting Diode), which are more effect and use less power and give a
better, brighter daylight glow.
Perhaps the CMI initiative needs to be expanded islandwide
in conjunction with UTECH (University of Technology) to retrofit these
defective day burning streetlights as a major summer project.
CMI and UTECH –
93,000 Streetlights upgraded to LED and eventually Solar in three Summers
They would re-do the survey and as the defective streetlights
are spotted, they’d retrofit them to LED. These LED could possibly be procured
from Cuba as per Minsiter of Science Technology, Energy and Mining Philip
Paulwell’s Cuba-Jamaica Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) Project as described in
my blog article
entitled “Minister
Paulwell revives Cuban Light Bulb Program - How to Ban Incandescent Bulbs and
focus on production of LED Bulbs in Jamaica”.
In so doing, the JPS Co and the OUR could not only have the
problem solved over the Summer of 2015 but also help aspiring Engineers, the top
paying job in the US of A according to NACE (National Association of Colleges
and Employers) as stated in my Geezam blog
article entitled “Why
Technology Companies are Seeking Engineers”.
If this project is undertaken, then by the Summer of 2016,
as an extension of this idea, they can then be taken off the Grid using Solar
Panels, with the excess power generated being sold to the JPS Co Grid, turning streetlight
into a source of Revenue for the Ministry of Local Government.
Finally to add a technological twist, the Ministry of Local
Government can team up with the Ministry of Science, Technology Energy and Mining
to add Wi-Fi to these Streetlights under the E-Learning TIS (Tablet in Schools)
initiative which also has plans to deploy CAP (Community Access Points) for
Wi-Fi in Jamaica.
Thus, children, instead of sitting under streetlights at
night, can also access the Internet, making the community have yet another reason
to make sure that these new LED Solar powered Street light are always
functioning.
In this way, not only would UTECH and CMI get the necessary
hands-on experience that they need in order to add a project to their
engineering Portfolio, but they’d also get some financial benefit and incentive
to continue on in their chosen engineering field.
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