As the Guyana government presses on with plans for a natural gas power generation plant to provide cheaper and more reliable energy to its citizens, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is also looking at how the country’s oil and gas sector can help push regional energy security.
During the virtual launch of CARICOM Energy Month on Monday, Dr Devon Gardner, Programme Manager for the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE), said CARICOM is embarking on a programme called Integrated Resources and Resilience Planning (IRRP).
IRRPs are plans for how countries can supply their need for electricity, in the future. The plans will ensure reliable sources of power, minimise negative impacts on the environment and enhance the resilience of power systems to hazards and risks, while minimising costs to consumers. CCREEE has also said building resilience in this way guarantees energy security, as the Caribbean seeks to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The role is being able to know and to a large extent, what your system requirements are to deliver the energy services that you need for your economic and social functions,” Dr. Gardner said, explaining that IRRP looks at countries individually to understand what their resource base is for producing energy, particularly electricity.
He said focus is being placed on those who have conventional hydrocarbon resources like Trinidad, and now Guyana and Suriname, with their growing offshore discoveries.
“Looking at non-conventionals like the wind and solar and some countries which have dual turbine and the hydro and understand what will be the optimal contribution of those various resources to the energy system especially for over different time scales,” he said is something that is also being examined.
Dr Gardener said after careful study of the energy mix available through the work being done, the citizens would have to decide on the approach to be taken. “We are now working with Belize, Guyana and Jamaica and St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago in doing this body of work.”
