The JPS Board of Directors, has approved a ground breaking hybrid energy storage solution, which pending approval from the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), will be the first of its kind in the Caribbean.  The innovation will help to secure grid stability and reliability, in the face of increasing intermittent renewable energy.

The energy storage solution will have power readily available, in the event that solar and wind renewable systems, suddenly lose power due to cloud cover, reduced wind or other interruptions.  It involves constructing a 24.5 Megawatt facility which will be located at the Hunts Bay Power Plant Sub-station, and will be a combination of high speed and low speed flywheels and containerised lithium-Ion batteries. Once approved for construction, it would become operational by the third quarter of 2018.

The proposed initiative will allow JPS to provide a high speed response when the output from renewables is suddenly reduced, to mitigate stability and power quality issues that cause outages to customers.  It will also provide a much faster, cost effective and environmentally friendly spinning reserve (or back-up) as an alternative to traditional generation spinning reserve which is required by the Company.

Additionally, JPS is seeking to convert more generating units to use Liquefied Natural Gas.  This will result in increased flexibility of the generating units, as the Company moves to ensure that customers have a more reliable, affordable and sustainable quality service