Mona School of Business & Management (MSBM) continued its business advocacy role by hosting a virtual public forum, “Powered Up - Electric Vehicles in Jamaica: Are we ready?” on Wednesday, July 7, 2021. Featuring a high level panel, the presentations focused on the impact of generation capacity, the anticipation for regulatory changes and the social behavioural changes that will occur due to the introduction of electric vehicles in Jamaica. The aim of the Government is to create an electromobility environment in Jamaica. An Electric Vehicle (EV) Council has been established to oversee the consultative process of the introduction of electromobility in Jamaica. The Council is responsible for the review of EV policies, legislations and regulations and to provide feedback on matters related to EV technologies. With the introduction of electric vehicles, there are concerns with regards to lack of consumer information, the cost of electric vehicles and the availability of charging ports among others and the event presented a forum to bring together members of industry, the regulators and the general public to engage in a public discourse on the implications of the proposed move by the Government.
The presenters included Ms. Dionne Nugent, Director of the Business Development Division, Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS); Dr. Orville Taylor, Head of the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona; and Mr. Valentine Fagan, Power Systems Consultant, Office of the Utilities Regulation (OUR) and the session was moderated by Dr. David McBean, Executive Director, MSBM.
Ms. Nugent expounded on the impact of generation capacity due to the introduction and expansion of electric vehicles in Jamaica. "The management of charging has an impact on the capacity requirements for generation.” She further noted that with unmanaged charging, everyone is charging at the same time while with managed charging, there is a use of technology, smart grid approaches and tariffs to ensure that everyone is not charging vehicles at the same time. This results in a significant drop in the requirement on the peak for electricity demand.
In his presentation, Dr. Orville Taylor emphasised the social implications associated with managing change. He expressed “In order to facilitate the introduction of electric vehicles to become a norm or compete, there is a significant labour market issue that has to be addressed.” He noted that there are high levels of unemployment, especially among youths and even within the workforce, there will be some level of resistance to the change. There will also be a decline in the employment of persons who gain from the sale of combustion engine vehicles.
Mr. Valentine Fagan, Power Systems Consultant at the OUR expressed “We (the OUR) recommend that the regulations include explicit provisions that are specific to electric vehicles and the associated infrastructures. There should be an amendment to the Electricity Act to exclude the activities of EV charging stations from being considered as a supply of electricity.” He also mentioned that there should be a license amendment that would exclude EV charging to allow for competition between EV charging providers. Policy will also need to be developed to allow persons to participate in EV charging activities.
The virtual audience of approximately 100 persons who joined by both Zoom and Youtube engaged in a very spirited question and answer session which followed the presentations. Moderated by Dr David McBean, this segment explored issues such as energy support, EV functionalities, in-house charging and social dislocations.
This Public Forum is part of the continuation of several held by MSBM as part of its advocacy role to engender discussion on topical business and management issues.