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GOING FOR GROWTH FEATURE
| THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015
WITH ENERGY LOAN
Jamaica
u
es
H
AVING TAPPED the Develop-
ment Bank of Jamaica (DBJ)
energy loan facility for $14 mil-
lion, Jamaica Teas Limited is reporting
annual savings on its electricity bill of $4
million.
CEO of Jamaica Teas, John Mahfood,
says the loan allowed the company to
invest in energy conservation, energy
efficiency and renewable energy
technologies.
“It is really a good thing
for us,” Mahfood told
The Gleaner
as he
argued that the
process of getting
the $14-million
loan was an easy
one which took
around six months.
“They (DBJ)
required you
to do
an
energy audit. So that energy audit,
which they paid for, took about six weeks
to organise and complete. So that was
the first step,” Mahfood explained.
“Then because they work through the
commercial bank, we then had to apply
to our commercial bank to get the loan
approved; in this case it was Bank of
Nova Scotia. That took about another
two months, so in all I think the process
took about four months. We got the
funds around December (last year) or
January this year.”
He now has five years to pay off the
loan at an interest rate of 9.5 per cent.
CHANGES MADE
The money has been used to change
to LED lights, as well as implement some
recommendations that came out of the
energy audit such as making alterations
to allow natural ventilation in order to
cool the building.
“That was a very good thing that came
out of it and they also recommended
some adjustments to our machinery set-
tings to reduce energy consumption,”
Mahfood shared.
“In addition to that the insulation
of our roof and, finally, the installation
of solar panels to generate our own
electricity.”
According to Mahfood, the saving
from the loan has been tremendous.
“Before the downturn in the price of
oil, we projected to spend about $4 mil-
lion a year on electricity at the factory,
and the system that we put in place
essentially wiped that off,” Mahfood
revealed.
“Although there are certain costs asso-
ciated with the energy solutions; obvi-
ously you have to buy the lighting, the
solar panels and you have interest
expense, but ultimately, in terms of
annual cash flow, we would save about
$4 million a year.”
The businessman is encourag-
ing other private-sector interests
and state agencies to also go
green.
“It is really a good thing for
us, but more importantly the
Government of Jamaica
should be leading the way in
making all of its offices
energy efficient,” said
Mahfood.
“The National Water
Commission consumes a
huge amount of electric-
ity, all of the govern-
ment facilities do.
Any building they
put up should have
solar water heat-
ing and solar
electricity to cut
down on the
$2 billion or
what they
spend on
electricity
every
year.”
FILE
Managing
director of
Jamaica
Teas
Limited,
John
Mahfood.
DBJ scheme helps
company to record $4m
in annual savings
‘Ultimately, in terms of
annual cash flow, we would
save about $4 million a
year’ – Mahfood