Electric vehicles: Right move, wrong time
Stakeholders are calling for infrastructural developments before any large-scale roll out of electric vehicles (EVs) here on the island. The Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) is encouraging Jamaicans to move away from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and towards EVs. On 7 May of this year, the first public EV charging facility was commissioned at the Boot Service Station in Drax Hall, St Ann. The new charging unit commissioned by Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Hon. Daryl Vaz and installed by JPS. Jamaica Public Service plans to install a total of 10 charging stations across the island by the end of July.
Head of the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Dr Orville Taylor, said there are several social factors that must be taken into account while or before a big roll out of EVs. One of the concerns raised by Dr Taylor was the “negative employment impact” that the move could bring about. He pointed out that over 200,000 Jamaicans are either directly or indirectly employed to maintain ICE vehicles or to the gas sales market and many of these people could be displaced if EVs replaced ICE vehicles on a grand scale. The solution, he said, was to have persons trained to repair and maintain EVs. This would ensure that alternative job opportunities were created, instead of redundancies.
Power systems consultant at the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), Mr Valentine Fagan, is calling for legislative changes to ensure competition in the supply of electricity for the EV market. Under the current legislation, the JPS, through its monopoly, is the only entity that can provide charging infrastructure in Jamaica. He wants an amendment to see EV charging excluded from being considered as a supply of electricity. He also wants other entities to be allowed to own and operate EV charging stations. Another “barrier” to the development of EV deployment in Jamaica, highlighted by Fagan, was the high upfront cost to purchase the vehicles. “The upfront cost of an electric vehicle is about 30 per cent higher than an ICE vehicle”, said Fagan.
Other barriers to the deployment of EVs identified by Fagan were, the limited number of charging stations available; lack of consumer information; and the fact that investors were afraid to commit to long-term investments in EVs because they felt that government might implement regulations that would hurt their businesses.
Fagan said the move to EVs would bring about greater energy security as 14 per cent of the nation’s grid capacity was supplied by renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) locally, while 100 per cent of the petroleum used in ICE vehicles was imported. He pointed out that reduced pollution was another benefit of the switch and called for incentives to be provided to customers who purchased EVs.
Director of business development at JPS, Dionne Nugent, said the company’s grid capacity was sufficient to accommodate the increased demand that would be brought about by a rise in EVs. Nugent said the installation of charging ports at home was simple and could be done by local electricians. She explained that there were two levels for home charging outlets; level 1 uses a 110 volt supply and level 2 uses a 220 volt supply. The 220v outlet was commonly used for air conditioning units and some washers and dryers. She pointed out that the 220V outlets would ensure vehicles were charged faster and it was the more feasible option of the two. A level 1 outlet required about 28 hours to charge a 40kWh vehicle from 0 to 100 per cent. For the same vehicle a level 2 outlet would take six hours and a level 3 outlet, used at public charging stations, would take about 20 minutes.
