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1240/5(6113)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT BY THE DEPUTY OF ST JOHN
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 1st MARCH 2011
Question
Can the Minister advise -
- what the structure and membership is of the Jersey Energy Trust, whether there is any remuneration and, if so, how much?
- when, where and how often it meets?
- is the Chief Executive of the JEC on the board and as it is an independent organisation why?
- whether States members can amend the constitution?
Can the Minister give details of any other structures established in relation to renewable energy, and advise –
- what they are and who established them?
- what their membership is, whether there is any remuneration and, if so, how much?
- how often they have met and whether the minutes are available?
- how they are appointed?
- what the total expense to date has been on reports and consultants, if any?
Answer
The Jersey Energy Trust
The Jersey Energy Trust (JET) was established by the Minister as a non-political body to provide an oversight function to support the programmes and objectives of an Energy Efficiency Service (EES). In its first phase during 2009 the Energy Efficiency Service delivered an energy efficiency programme to targeted low income groups.
The Terms of Reference were established under MD-PE-2009-0114 Members are appointed for an initial term of 3 years.
Members were appointed to represent the following skills and experience: Chairing public or voluntary bodies (Sir Nigel Broomfield); Providing energy services (Chris Ambler); Assisting vulnerable groups (David Lord); Assessing the impact of grant programmes (all members). There is an expert independent advisor from the UK who has previous experience in this area (Andrea Cook OBE). The Departmental Sponsors include the Environment Director and Assistant Director for Environmental policy and on occasion the Chief Executive Officer for the Environment Department.
Ms Cook is paid as a consultant and her audited travel expenses are reimbursed. Since January 2009 she has been paid £10,700 in consultancy fees and £5,416.28 for travel and expenses. She has provided assistance to the programme in addition to attending Board meetings. Such services include reviewing and developing documents including implementation plans, and facilitating meetings in the UK for example between the Energy Efficiency Service staff and officer and the Board of the Energy Saving Trust.
Technical expertise and assistance at the initial stages of the project were provided by the Programme Director who also attends Board Meetings in an advisory capacity. This individual is seconded from Jersey Energy and his costs are being paid by the Jersey Electricity Company through the funding they have provided to the programme. Since the Project began in January 2009 the total cost has been £92,435. As the project matured the monthly costs have dropped significantly and are expected to continue to diminish still further in 2011.
- The meetings are generally held at The Environment Department, Howard Davis Farm, Trinity and on occasion members have contributed by teleconference.
Meetings have been held on the following dates:
23/01/09, 12/03/09, 1/5/09, 15/06/09, 4/8/09, 22/09/09, 27/11/09, 26/01/10, 11/3/10, 18/05/10, 19/07/10, 20/09/10, 02/12/10, 13/01/11
- The Jersey Energy Trust was constituted to provide oversight of the development and implementation of the energy efficiency programme and to advise the Minister. The CEO of Jersey Electricity plc was initially included on the board due to JE's direct assistance to the programme.
The Chairman, Sir Nigel Broomfield is fully independent and ensures that should any member of the Board be conflicted during any discussions or decisions, they are excused from participating.
Sir Nigel has a distinguished and exemplary career in the Foreign Office holding senior and ambassadorial positions in the Soviet Union, GDR East Berlin, Germany and New Delhi. He has held a number of non-executive roles including Chairman of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation UK between 2005 and 2009. He is President of the German/British Chamber of Commerce and Industry in London and chairman of Yatra, an investment company for real estate in India.
- The constitution of the Jersey Energy Trust has been set by Ministerial Decision but the Minister is happy to consider suggestions for improvements from States Members.
The Tidal Power Group and Commission
- Initially A Tidal Power Steering group was set up under Ministerial Dec to carry out an initial investigation into the feasibility of particularly tidal power (please see MD-PE-2008-0153).
In May 2009 the Minister, having accepted the recommendations of the Tidal Power Steering Group, reconstituted key members of the Group, in consultation as a Tidal Power Commission' to produce further recommendations to the Minister in respect of a fully mandated Tidal Power Commission (please see MD-PE-2009-0093). The Minister has recently decided that the commission will be extended to cover other renewable energy technologies and renamed appropriately.
- The membership of the Tidal Power Commission comprises: Constable Dan Murphy (Chairman); Sir Nigel Broomfield (representing expertise in areas of environmental matters and cross-jurisdictional relations); Alick McIntosh (representing expertise in areas of environmental matters, carbon markets and infrastructure projects funding and implementation); Mike Liston (representing expertise in areas of environmental matters and infrastructure projects both in electricity and renewables).
The members do not receive any remuneration.
The executive officer is the Assistant Director for Environmental Policy and the Director for the Environment and Chief Officer for Planning and Environment have also attended meetings on occasion.
- This working group has meet on a number of occasions during the course of their work. Action points are recorded by the executive officer but formal minutes are not kept.
- In order to complete their feasibility studyan external consultant was employed to examine the potential for tidal energy including an assessment of the marine conditions. A competitive tender process was carried out in line with Financial Directions. IT Power (an acknowledged expert in the field) was engaged tocarry out desktop and field studies which were carried out in late 2009 and early 2010. The cost of this work was £65,819. The money was sourced from the Central Environment Vote which is a capital fund established some years ago to fund energy related projects as well as from the Departmental Environmental Policy consultancy budget.