Vaz says June 5 Jamaica blackout probe shows repeat grid protection failures

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz says the first findings from the investigation into the June 5 islandwide electricity outage are "completely untenable and unacceptable", saying they appear to repeat problems seen in earlier grid breakdowns.

Writing on X on Tuesday afternoon, Vaz said a ministry summary of a preliminary report identified "a failure or delayed operation of the primary protection scheme" on the Hunts Bay and Rockfort lines.

Those facilities and the key transmission route were also discussed at Saturday's press conference, where Jamaica Public Service Company CEO Hugh Grant said the national grid suffered a "cascading" failure.

Vaz said the protection issue led to an "extended fault duration", an "escalation of the disturbance", and "wider propagation of system instability" across Jamaica.

"The reports suggest the same old findings as in previous instances regarding system failures," he wrote. "In 2026, with improved technologies and greater experience, we should not be exposed or be vulnerable to the challenges we experienced in 2006, approximately 20 years ago."

At Saturday's briefing, Vaz said Jamaica has had six total islandwide system shutdowns since 2006, with the most recent before Friday's incident occurring in April 2016.

In Tuesday's post, he also said more outages had been reported across the country after restoration of the grid was completed on Saturday morning, renewing concerns about whether the network had stabilised following the June 5 failure.

"The Jamaican people are sick and tired of this," the minister wrote, "and quite frankly SO AM I!"

Vaz said he intends to deliver a "comprehensive report" to Parliament later this week.

JPS, the country's only electricity distributor under an exclusive government-issued licence, has been under heavy public examination since Friday's blackout.

Grant, who said a total grid collapse is not something the company does not "expect to happen," reported that lightning damaged the Rockfort sub-station in east Kingston and that a conductor broke on transmission lines linking the Hunts Bay and Newport stations.

The Office of Utilities Regulation is also carrying out its own assessment. Its director general, Ansord Hewitt, said the agency had written to JPS for a preliminary report.

Under the regulatory rules, JPS must provide a complete incident report within 30 days.