Published in MTimes 01 11 2018
Now that the MSM’s ardent attempts at courtship of the MMM have been spurned and the former reacting with a Rs 50 million defamation case against its potential partner, Ivan Le Terrible could not see better opportunity to strike again. Notre Ivan le terrible persiste et signe.
Taking advantage of a meeting in Seychelles on building consensus for a common Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supply system for "greener and smarter energy", he shrewdly roped in ministers Nando Bodha and Ashit Gungah, to revive his liquefied natural gas project and put it back on the agenda. But this time the frontal attack was on a wider front and more aggressive. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy did specify that the government's long-term strategy in the energy sector is to make use of liquefied natural gas as an alternative to coal and heavy oil. Thus the use of alternative sources such as LNG was not only for the production of electricity but also for all our energy needs.
The use of LNG is expected to result in a drop of 30-40% in carbon dioxide emissions. The construction of a 100-120 MW power plant using the combined cycle technology based on natural gas may go ahead. It seems that the preliminary report on the introduction of LNG has not been dumped. It is still being studied by a ministerial committee. Whether it will remain at the study level or move forward will depend on how firm-footed are our politicians vis-à-vis the lobbies of an embattled private sector intent on rescuing a besieged cane industry. And please add the need for electoral campaign financing from the very private sector!
Meanwhile Ivan Le Terrible puts on the pressure. At the inauguration of the Grid-Scale Battery Energy Storage System at Amaury, he alerted us to the fact that even little neighbour Seychelles has realised the importance of LNG while fulminating against the local coal lobbies and the pollution they cause – their consumption of coal has nearly quadrupled between 2000 and 2018 from 200,000 to 700,000 tons. Now that the Independent Power Producers’ contracts are due for renegotiations, Ivan Le Terrible finds it opportune -- now or never -- to deal them a death blow that would leave his mark in our history of acrimonious relationship with the sugar barons: “Ivan, le pourfendeur des sugar barons!” It's the Chihuahua nipping at the Great Dane.
But it need not necessarily be either/or extremes- all for coal or all for LNG. There is a middle way. We could opt for the combined-cycle gas turbine which will be cheaper in power generation and we will gradually diminish our dependence on coal as we move in the long term to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The cost of having LNG terminals and supply lines may be too burdensome for us now and it may turn out to be another prestige product that we could have done without for the moment. Meanwhile the CPB, caught between the hammer and the anvil, will continue pretending that it is still seeking additional information. The show goes on!!!
