JPS under scrutiny following island-wide electricity blackout

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has requested a preliminary report from the Jamaica Public Service company (JPS) by Monday, following Friday night's island-wide power outage.

The utilities regulator, in a statement on the matter, said it was seeking details on “the cause of the interruption, the sequence of events leading up to it, and the impact on the generation, transmission, and distribution systems, as well as on customers.”

The OUR says it is also assessing the adequacy of the utility company's response and has requested information on corrective measures being implemented to reduce the likelihood of a similar incident. 

The JPS has advised that electricity service has been restored across the island and that it will continue monitoring the system to ensure stability. 

The OUR noted that the preliminary report will be followed by a more detailed submission, which the JPS is required to provide within thirty days under the Electricity Act. 

Paulwell

In his response to the outage, Philip Paulwell, Opposition Spokesman on Energy, demanded answers regarding the blackout.

He had also called for the OUR to issue an urgent public report and on JPS to publish a full and transparent account of Friday night's failure. 

“Was lightning really the cause? Because if the government's position is that Jamaica is building back with resilience, last night was a complete contradiction of that claim. The cost falls hardest on ordinary Jamaicans. Businesses lost revenue. Families lost food. Airports were in darkness. Hospitals trained under emergency condition. This cannot become a cycle of failure, probe, silence, and repeat. Accountability is not optional. It is owed.”

Apology

For his part, Energy Minister Daryl Vaz apologized to the Jamaican people at a press conference, held jointly with the JPS, on Saturday afternoon, characterizing the situation as “an embarrassment and a black eye for Jamaica.”

He said it had had a negative impact on Jamaica's international reputation because, according to “ Jamaica is not one of those countries… which has issues like this… like Cuba. Cuba has rolling blackouts because of all sorts of problems. Jamaica is not just such a country." 

Water

Water services were also badly disrupted by the electricity outage, as Water Minister Mathew Samuda explained at the press conference. 

He explained that up to earlier on Saturday, 65,000 customers of the National Water Commission were without power, but that but most customers were back online,  and that by that evening it was expected that those without service would be significantly lower.