Senior Executives of Marubeni Corporation visit Jamaica

News 3 Minutes

Written by Chantell Guthrie

Two senior Marubeni executives from Japan recently visited Jamaica. Mr. Yuji Sato, Senior Operating Officer and Mr. Ryota Kobayashi, General Manager of Marubeni Power engaged with the management teams and toured the facilities of Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) and South Jamaica Power Company (SJPC), in which Marubeni holds significant ownership.

Marubeni is one of the majority shareholders of Jamaica Public Service Company. Since its acquisition in 2007, Marubeni and its partners have directed the investments of more than US$1.2 billion in installation, repair, maintenance and upgrade of the electricity grid as well as equipment needed for the integration of more renewable energy assets. These funds have significantly improved the reliability of the generation, transmission and distribution assets, security in the streets, the integration of renewable assets and the preparation for the influx of electric vehicles in Jamaica.

JPS installed more than 100,000 LED street lights and hundreds of thousands of Smart Meters, converted the Bogue power station from oil to gas, installed the largest energy storage using batteries, and is in the process of locating 20 public EV Charging Stations islandwide. These massive investments have significantly improved the lives of Jamaicans over the years.

Executives of Marubeni Power Mr. Yuji Sato (4th left), Senior Operating Officer and General Manager – Mr. Ryota Kobayashi (1st left) recently visited Jamaica and met with JPS executives to discuss the company’s current and future operations. Others from left are Gary Barrow- JPS Chief Operating Officer, Vernon Douglas – JPS Chief Financial Officer, Vernon Douglas – JPS Chief Executive Officer and Mo Majeed- Chief Operating Officer, Marubeni Power International/Managing Director, Caribbean Operations. The meeting took place at the JPS Head office in Kingston.

The Marubeni executives toured the SJPC power plant with a sense of satisfaction. Marubeni and its partners have invested more than US$330 million to build this largest, most efficient power plant in the country.  The South Jamaica Power Company’s 194MW plant came online in late 2019, providing cheap and reliable power to homes, businesses and institutions in Jamaica.

Mr. Sato and Mr. Kobayashi toured JPS’s advanced Hybrid Energy Storage and the state-of-the-art System Control Centre. Both facilities are critical in maintaining efficient functioning of the electricity grid and in supporting renewables integration. 

Executives of Marubeni Power visited the JPS Energy Storage System while on a recent visit to Jamaica.  Photo shows Mr. Yuji Sato (3rd left); Senior Operating Officer and General Manager, General Manager – Mr. Ryota Kobayashi (right); Mo Majeed (2nd left), Chief Operating Officer, Marubeni Power International/Managing Director, Caribbean Operations and Shogo Otani – Senior Vice President, Caribbean Operations

Looking forward, Marubeni and its partners are committed to providing low cost, clean energy to the country and expect to invest up to half a billion USD to build new electricity assets to replace some aging power plants.

Mr. Sato (left), Senior Operating Officer and Mr. Kobayashi (4th left), General Manager of Marubeni Power recently visited the JPS highly advanced system control center along with Mo Majeed (2nd left) Chief Operating Officer, Marubeni Power International/Managing Director, Caribbean Operations, Lincoy Small (3rd left) Director- Systems Operations and Shogo Otani – Senior Vice President, Caribbean Operations.

The Marubeni executives also met with the JPS board of directors and the executive management team. Mr. Sato and Mr. Kobayashi acknowledged the challenges in providing impeccable service to customers as well as low cost, reliable power despite the prevalence of electricity theft and a challenging regulatory environment. The senior executives expressed their confidence in the directors and management team of JPS and SJPC and the tremendous progress made in recent years but they advised that a closer collaboration with the government, the regulator and other stakeholders remains paramount to further improving the standards of care to Jamaicans while containing the cost of electricity.

Mr. Sato (2nd left), Senior Operating Officer and Mr. Kobayashi (4th left), General Manager of Marubeni Power recently visited Jamaica to observe the Marubeni’s investments in Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) and South Jamaica Power Company (SJPC) The visit included meetings and tours of different facilities. A quick photo was captured on the tour of the South Jamaica Power Company. Standing from left is Mo Majeed Chief Operating Officer, Marubeni Power International/Managing Director, Caribbean Operations, Noel Watson – Plant Manager of South Jamaica Power Company (SJPC) and Keisuke Harada Senior Manager, Caribbean Operations.

Currently, JPS has two major investors: Marubeni Corporation and Korea East-West Power each hold 40% of shares in JPS. The Government of Jamaica, through the Development Bank of Jamaica holds the remaining 19.9% and the remaining less than 1% is held by private shareholders.

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