Utility companies paid over $129M in compensation in 2017

The Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) is reporting that last year customers of utility companies were paid a total of $129,383,876.97 in compensation as a result of breaches of the Guaranteed Standards as well as credits and compensation secured for them by its Consumer Affairs Unit.

The OUR says the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) paid out approximately $124 million and National Water Commission (NWC) paid approximately $3,840,000 to customers as a result of breaches of the Guaranteed Standards.

It says an additional $1.5 million was secured in credits and compensation for customers through actions taken the Unit.

“JPS and NWC accounted for 18 per cent and 80 per cent of total credits respectively, with the remaining 2 per cent being secured from C&WJ (FLOW) and Columbus Communications (Flow)”.

The OUR says for 2017, JPS committed a total 75,571 breaches which attracted potential compensation of approximately $151.8 million of which actual payments amounted to approximately $124 million, representing 82 per cent of total potential amounts, which was paid out through automatic compensation.

The utility regulator says the remaining 18 per cent of compensation not paid related to the few breaches for which the required claim forms were not submitted for validation.

It says last year the NWC committed a total of 2,561 breaches of the Guaranteed Standards which attracted potential compensation of approximately $8.1 million.

It says actual payments amounted to approximately $3.84 million, representing 47 percent of total potential amounts with the remaining 53 per cent not being paid as the required claim forms were not submitted.

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