EWI now the preferred bidder for Jamaican energy project11:39...

EWI now the preferred bidder for Jamaican energy project11:39 am, Fri October 4, 2013

Jamaica's Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) confirmed on Friday morning that it will immediately "proceed to offer" to Hong Kong based Energy World International (EWI) the opportunity to provide the additional 360 megawatts of energy capacity for the country's national grid. This follows the failure of Azurest-Cambridge, the initial preferred bidder, to post the require security bid bond of one percent of the total cost of the investment by Thursday's deadline.

EWI was the second ranked of the four companies that had bid on the project to supply the required additional base load capacity to the national power grid, followed by Energise Jamaica Ltd and Optimal Energy. With the number one ranked Azurest-Cambridge having failed to meet the 15-day deadline to submit the bid bond, EWI will now be given a similar 15 days, starting October 4, to comply with this requirement. Failure to meet the deadline would result in the third-ranked bidder, Energise Jamaica, being given the opportunity to undertake the project.

The OUR, in its release on Friday, noted that its calculations show that "every one (1) US cent reduction in the price of electricity translates to just under J$3billion in savings annually to consumers at the current exchange rate."

RESPONSE TO CG

Responding to adverse comments from the Contractor General of Jamaica regarding the including of EWI in the process, in the first place, the OUR, said the Contractor General "has not answered the OUR’s position that he applied the wrong procurement procedure, which is the fundamental issue and the basis on which he arrived at all his conclusions."

In that regard, the utilities regulator is maitaining that "no authority that properly considers the facts and applies the relevant provisions of law and policy would have arrived at the Contractor General’s conclusions. Therefore the OUR maintains that EWI’s inclusion in the list of selected entities invited to submit bids on August 8, 2013 was lawful and in accordance with Condition 18 of the Amended and Restated All Island Electric Licence 2011 and the Government’s procurement guidelines and was based on the adoption of a process that afforded all the entities to compete fairly, on the same basis and subject to the same rules."

Continuing, the OUR said "in the pursuit of the national imperative to reduce the real cost of electricity to Jamaican consumers while meeting the need to secure capacity in the shortest possible time, the OUR has at every relevant point in the procurement process been diligent in ensuring that the process is conducted fairly and equitably. The OUR has been and will continue to be committed to the rule of law, and the transparency and integrity of the procurement process while it strives to achieve the required generation capacity at affordable prices for all Jamaicans."