Vaz says JPS disconnection project unacceptable

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz says that the current approach of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) to control electricity theft and damage to its infrastructure in some communities is unacceptable.

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) recently indicated that it has not approved any policy or measure that would see the use of power outages as a means to control electricity losses.

The regulator made the comment after Member of Parliament for South East St Andrew, Julian Robinson, called for an end to the wholesale daily disconnection of entire communities, as a means of addressing electricity theft.

The OUR said that it has received complaints from persons in Clarendon, Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and Trelawny about the practice.

The regulator said that it wrote to JPS in August requesting information that can assist in its probe.

In a statement today, Vaz said he is disappointed that neither the OUR nor the energy ministry was informed about this practice, which he said started in March 2021.
 
“Those paying customers face a double jeopardy: they are paying their electricity bill and they are already paying 15-17% on that bill to compensate for electricity theft,” he stated.

“It is not good business practice and it does not allow for good customer relations to turn around and punish legitimate customers twice by disconnecting their power supply,” Vaz continued.

The energy minister asserted that it should not be lost on JPS the severe hardship that its actions would have posed on its paying customers and urges an immediate rethink of the strategy.
 
He acknowledged that the issue of electricity theft was a difficult one which no doubt affects the operations of JPS.

But, he said that solutions should be explored through consultation, collaboration and community engagement.

The energy minister argued that the sustainable reduction in electricity theft, which contributes to transformer failures, cannot be achieved without a mix of approaches including the strengthening of the policy, legislative and social security frameworks and improvements in technological and institutional capacities.

“The JPS needs to quicken the pace of more wide-scale adoption of smart technologies and the utilisation of solutions that will allow poor Jamaicans to buy and manage their electricity use within their budget similar to what obtains in the telecommunications sector.”

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