John Myers Jr., Business Reporter

A section of Wigton's 683-acre wind park located in Manchester. The Petroleum Corporation is seeking joint venture partners or an outright buyer for the energy company. - File

Plans to divest the island's only wind energy facility, the Wigton Wind Farm have been scrapped three months into the new Jamaica Labour Party government.

Consultant to the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), Dr. Raymond Wright, disclosed Tuesday that a decision was made to withdraw the offer to sell the US$25 million wind farm located in south Manchester.

The decision to pull the company comes on the heels of disappointing responses to the PCJ's invitation for investors to purchase the three-year-ol energy company.

Bids

"My understanding is that we did not get many bids or any bids, and that we will not be selling Wigton," Wright told Wednesday Business.

The divestment was meant to inject capital in the wind farm — whose output is running well below its 20MW capacity — to boost its performance.

Wigton currently contributes about five megawatts of power to the national under a 20-year power purchase agreement with monopoly power distributor Jamaica Public Service Company, earning it 5.6 US cents per kilowatt for the first five years of operation and 5.05 US cents per kilowatt hour thereafter for the next 15 years.

Wright said the lack of investor interest did not mean that PCJ had given up on its plans to boost production.

"We are making a new effort to deal with Wigton ourselves," he said.

According to him, the new chairman of the PCJ felt the prospects to double the capacity of the plant from 20.7 to 41.4 megawatts were better if it were kept by Wigton Wind Farm Ltd (WWF), a subsidiary company owned by the PCJ.

Energy companies

PCJ is an executive agency of the Ministry of Mining, Telecommunication and Energy, and the parent of several state owned energy companies.

With Jamaica's energy bill projected to shoot over the US$2 billion mark this year as the price of oil continues to soar, efforts have been intensified to identify and develo sources of energy to reduce the country's dependency on fossil fuels.

The development of wind energy was identified as one such possibility and the PCJ is also seeking partners to develop several hydro-electric plants.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com