TT’s Energy Chamber’s Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference coverage
By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
June 6, 2023
Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Minister, Stuart Young, said that no one wants to admit that the price of transitioning from fossil fuel driven energy sources to renewables is very costly. It’s with this backdrop, Young had some strongly worded comments to share with those leading the industry within his local economy, imploring them to face the “reality” of the costs associated with this transition.
In commencing the three-day Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference put on by the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Chamber, the minister described the terms floating around today as ‘nice concepts’, and while he did not mean to diminish the need to reduce carbon emissions, he says the Caribbean needs to take charge of its own destiny in the Caribbean. This reality he speaks of puts the hard hitting question as to how regional islands, even ones lesser advantaged that Trinidad and Tobago, truly afford these nice sounding concepts that in his view are being pushed on us by the rich developing countries. Citing that the top three greenhouse gas emitters remained China, India and United States contributing some 42 to 49.6 percent of total emissions, while the bottom one hundred countries only accounted for 2.9 percent, it had become an unfair demand being pushed on smaller states.
He notes while Trinidad and Tobago has energy security, and it seems “okay for everyone to sit in these rooms and to talk about concepts and what needs to be done, we get caught up, you have people measuring the carbon and what needs to be done”, there is a need to “bring it back to reality”. With this he pointed out ‘Hydrogen’ as the latest sexy term, and put it forward to those present to instead “go and do some research, and see how many green hydrogen producing plants operational”.
Minister Young stated the latest move with American President Joe Biden’s passage of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Europe with high gas prices, has forced the price of renewable projects to sky rocket post the Russia-Ukraine war. He added that countries reverted to producing coal in order to meet their domestic energy demands given the price of Natural gas and its shortage across Europe. And while the CARICOM region needs energy security, and member states are being told to look at wind and solar plants, “no one is talking about the costs associated with these projects, much less the red tape involved in accessing funding”.
Young continued by saying he made no bones about what Trinidad and Tobago was going to do, “with no apologies for it whatsoever”, underscoring that his country was “going to continue utilizing its god given resources of oil and gas, because it is what keeps our economy going”.
He proceeded to chastise the bankability of these renewable projects when it came to speaking to the countries that wants SIDS to reduce emissions, slamming it as a revolving door, that often led to frustration involving “consultant after consultant to do feasibility studies but where is the reality when a government needs to provide for its citizens to flick on a light to pay the light bill at the end of the month, that is not helping them”.
The energy minister went on to pinpoint pledges made prior to COP 26, to put hundreds of billions in a fund to help those countries that need to move to cleaner sources of fuel, these he says “have not come in and the bankability that has been pushed toward these multilaterals and lending agencies has not been easy, fraught with red tape and bureaucracy, becoming dilemmas that are faced in dealing with the reality of energy sustainability”. To this he urged those gathered to setting to use their “collective brain power over the next few days”. Nevertheless, he says fortunate for Trinidad and Tobago, it is in a good place with the infrastructure already present to take into the transition phase.
So far Trinidad and Tobago has embarked on widespread renewable projects, such as solar farm powered in part by bpTT and the IDB, and the partnership with Dominica for green hydrogen to come on stream in the future.
Jerome Dookie, Managing Director of Proman companies Caribbean Nitrogen Company Limited (CNC) and Nitrogen (2000) Unlimited and Chairman of the Energy Chamber, in welcoming guests to the forum says there was a need to see Ideas to action, where actions need to be taken to meet the challenge. Mentioning the transition of many of his member companies that have taken up the challenge in redefining their production processes, including his own company signaling a new era in shipping using Methanol fuel tankers for transporting cargo, companies around the world have “barely scratched the surface to meet net zero, as it is different across the region, and the pathway to addressing this is viewed differently from a highly industrialised nation like Trinidad and Tobago, compared to a tourism-based economy island”, something he also notes addressing is vital. To this he pointed that to “the integration of energy services markets in the region means an active CSME working in the region to allow the transfer of skills needed to drive this energy transition, most of them being the energy chamber’s membership”. In terms of capital, he says this is available both regionally and internationally to help finance the energy transition, and the key is found in a way it can be deployed in the region, including public private partnerships, as well as the involvement of international development banks.
Dookie says one of the biggest challenges lie in the right policy environment and with many eager to install solar panels, this remains on the backburner due to the lack of the right supportive legislation, and cautions that as a result such “investments will not be made that will allow for such energies on the national grid”. He notes that there is a need for proper policies which encourage good economic sense for Trinidad and Tobago to divert as much natural gas from the electricity generation to the foreign exchange earning capacity through the petrochemical and LNG sectors. He went on to describe the pattern of electricity consumption in Trinidad and Tobago as concerning and not sustainable, with domestic power consumption increasing by 31 percent in the last decade, while he says industrial consumption has actually declined by 20 percent over the same period, with ten percent of natural gas going into electricity generation with it not contributing to much economic output and wealth creation, a pattern he says must change.
Stating this being his reasons behind supporting the rate revision that has been on the forefront lately, nevertheless he adds that careful consideration must be given to the inefficiencies in power generation.
But the transition for such industrialised nations is not at developing renewables, but looking at the entire energy system. With the petrochemical industry as major point sources for carbon dioxide, for almost two decades, he says they have been capturing large volumes of CO2 for use in the downstream sector of methanol and fertilizer production, these ‘commodities that have easily become liabilities, are now required to move in the sense of urgency to ensure while it acts responsibly preserving the world for future generations, it also secures the economic wellbeing of its people”.
President and CEO of the Chamber Thacwkray Dax Driver put forward the question on how local energy companies were responding to this energy trilemma which calls for affordable, secure, and low carbon energy for the world?
David Campbell, bpTT President says the focus of his company has changed from being three percent investments renewable to thirty percent in the last few years, with an expectation to grow that by fifty percent in the next two years, marking a massive change in how it focuses its investments which is reflected within its Trinidad and Tobago market as well, having invested heavily in the solar plant at Brechin Castle, and the Cassia C compression plant which is the first of its kind aimed at getting more out of the reservoirs, and US$800M carded for investment later this year.
Managing Director at Denovo, Bryan Ramsumair says conversations in the industry has changed greatly within a short time frame, when it comes to asking questions surrounding a company’s Carbon intensity of its molecules, how does a company’s greenhouse gas emission look like as well as asking for a sustainability report, and its management when it comes to this. These terms he says has become a must from 2016 to now, as to the industry conducts its business, whereas when it comes to conducting a field development, assessment must entail a value process that includes its GHG score, and how it will add to the carbon intensity of a project.
Citing the Zandolie project, a fully, renewable powered gas platform, which was launched in 2022, Ramsumair said part of looking at the end product meant the score achieved when it sold its methanol, with the advantage of marketing the product by saying it uses solar and wind, which helps to make the product competitive in marketing its sustainability and how it keeps Trinidad and Tobago competitive as it moves forward.
NGC president Mark Loquan says getting through the immediate future being three years, especially with the current gas constraints, a lot of the activity at his company has focused on how energy is being utilized currently, how power is managed, along with keeping methane levels low, while at the same time pivoting an organization to say “you are cognizant of the changes going on in the global environment, which is affecting the company’s disposition”. He says the sustainable energy journey was started six years ago at NGC, with its first sustainability report looking inwards at safety and governance to now where you see a deliberate influencing beyond the company. In terms of gas supply solutions and pivoting in the new world with hydrogen, his company has ensured to incorporate its “Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)” processes in its report.
To much of Campbell’s dismay, he says the energy industry has not done a good enough job in distinguishing gas from other fossil fuels, with it being cleaner, despite the caveat of dealing with ethane, as a solution he says, bpTT has undertaken the installation of measurement and detection devices through all its operations worldwide. Gas, however he notes, remains important as a bridge fuel and vital in the transition, proof being what occurred in the market last year with price extremities, and one that he believes the world will continue to be in on atleast for the next decade while other renewables come onstream, it also being a backup during intermittencies experienced with renewable energy sources. With regard to permacapture and storage, Campbell adds that his company is currently in the process of locating companies locally that are able to sequester carbon captures allowing for gas to be continued to be used in a net zero scenario.
Realities Denovo MD, Ramsumair says needs to be acknowledged, and includes the need for a considerable amount of investment needed for companies to drop that carbon intensity score to get the end product where it is truly renewable. Its not just a capital requirement, but a technological one. He adds that there isn’t the scope and range to build the amount of hydrogen for renewable power at the moment, with gas still viewed as a lower carbon intense product that is very well suited for methanol and ammonia production and Proman currently capturing 65 percent of the carbon on the Point Lisas Estate. He does however lament, that capturing such emissions does require supportive legislation with incentives needed for that capital to be employed.
Currently newer methanol plants invested in have already implemented lower CI scores (Carbon intensity), with transfers in marine fuels used in cargo ships transporting commodities around the world, with a 2050 requirement for GHG emissions cut by 50 percent.
As for doing business, companies such as DeNovo now call on external contractors to also look at their CI scores, as this in turn puts them at a competitive advantage in working with clients in need of maintaining a reputation and standards that is in keeping with lowered GHG emissions. Ramsumair says his company has already begun the process of tracking external contractors, as these third party scores often filter in to company’s wider scopes and CI scores.