E-7 group initiates energy project in RI

E-7 group initiates energy project in RI

TORONTO (Reuter): The E-7 group of utility companies said on
Tuesday it has initiated energy development projects in
Indonesia, Jordan and Zimbabwe as part of a joint implementation
program aimed at encouraging sustainable energy development
(SED).

But current E-7 Chairman Allan Kupcis, President and Chief
Executive of Ontario Hydro, said although the group has managed
to initiate the three projects announced at last year's summit in
Cologne, Germany, real progress has been hampered by tentative
governments in developing countries.

"One of the learning experiences for us is that there is a lag
time (from) intent to actually actualizing some of these
(projects). We are learning some of the real issues, that when
you deal with governments and their concerns about what the
outcomes and how the projects are actually implemented, and how
they will be credited... those are some very important issues,"
Kupcis told reporters during a break in the group's two-day
summit meeting in Toronto.

The E-7 initiative, made up of large electricity utility
companies from Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the
United States, developed the projects in close consultation with
utility companies from developing countries.

The Indonesian government gave the official go-ahead to the
E-7's project to develop a renewable energy system for remote
communities in Indonesia in December.

The official government signing to begin a thermal plant
upgrade in Jordan is set for later this month, while the Zimbabwe
micro-hydroelectric project is due to commence in the autumn.

"So we have not got any additional projects to those three, we
having been working hard as a group to get those three actually
moving past the stage of just announcing them," Kupcis said.

The joint implementation program was developed at the 1996
summit to foster cooperation between industrialized and emerging
nations to help emerging energy sectors develop in an
environmentally responsible way.

Kupcis said the group's main drive this year was to exchange
information about successful SED practices being implemented in
the sector in an effort to broker the transfer of SED initiatives
globally.

He said global deregulation has brought about increased
competition in the sector and between the E-7 utilities
themselves. But the group remains bound by a common interest in
sustainable and environmentally responsible development.

"This dimension of environment issues and sustainable
development (is a) path that none of us can afford to give up,"
Kupcis said.

The group also passed a resolution to work towards the
expansion of E-7 membership to include two utilities from each of
the G7 group of countries.

Current members include Ontario Hydro and Hydro-Quebec from
Canada, Electricite de France, Germany's RWE AG, Italy's ENEL
S.p.a., Kansai Electric Power Co and Tokyo Electric Power Co from
Japan and Southern California Edison of the United States.

Collectively they produce about 12 percent of the world's
electricity.