Tackle culture that winks at electricity theft – OUR boss
Published:Monday | May 2, 2022 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
ANSORD HEWITT, director general of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), believes that all stakeholders must come together to eradicate Jamaica’s culture of looking the other way in relation to electricity theft and encroachment on other utilities, particularly by persons capable of paying for those services.
He made the call on Thursday evening while addressing the OUR’s inaugural ‘Western Focus’ stakeholder meeting, which was held on the online Zoom platform. The forum was held to address utility concerns in western Jamaica and to provide an update on the state of Jamaica’s utility sector.
“Clearly, it is a matter that is a constant headache to us, and we certainly insist that the utilities police their networks. But we also accept that it is a pervasive problem. It is not just the stealing of electricity, or stealing of cables, or getting on to National Water Commission lines, as apart from the economic cost, there is the disruption caused to the lives of communities,” Hewitt told the meeting.
“There is a culture that winks at some of these things without realising that it is not just about the economic cost; that there is a cost to the public that is being imposed. And so we all have an interest in discouraging this kind of behaviour in terms of this illegal encroachment on the utilities,” Hewitt added.
“We have been saying to the political directorate that this is a social problem that we are going to have to deal with, because at the moment it is being socialised in a way that is disruptive to the society. We need to find a constructive way to do it, but at the same time continue the enforcement against those who can pay and who are causing the detriment to the society.”
Hewitt was responding to a revelation from Leroy Reid, the Jamaica Public Service Company’s (JPS) director of customer solutions, that electricity theft is often committed by higher-income customers.
“The harsh reality is that we simply do not have enough hands to take down all of the throw-up wires that exist. The stealing (of electricity) is not confined to throw-ups in challenged communities, where people whose discretionary income is not the highest; there are sophisticated communities, professionals, who are stealing using high technology,” said Reid.
“We are very uncomfortable because we know that you, our paying customers, as well as ourselves and the country are bearing this burden. We have tried lots of technology solutions, [but] we need legislation that is invasive, incisive and effective to deter these activities,” Reid continued.
A PLAGUE FOR JPS
The long-standing issue of illegal extraction of electricity has continued to plague JPS, despite programmes put in place by the electricity supplier to curb the practice. The company spent some US$150 million (J$23 billion) over a five-year period, between 2016 and 2021, in an effort to reduce electricity theft, but was still incurring US$200 million (J$30.8 billion) in losses due to illegal connections, with an estimated one in four customers illicitly abstracting power.
In July last year, the JPS called for the Government to establish a special court to prosecute electricity thieves, while observing that approximately 200,000 households steal electricity annually.
In the meantime, Hewitt noted that the OUR and JPS continue to debate back and forth on how much of the cost of electricity theft should be passed on to consumers.
“In the case of JPS, we are constantly at loggerheads as to how much of this we are going to allow to pass on to players. The company disagrees very strongly with us and our position on it, but we have to insist that they take an efficient and persistent approach,” said Hewitt.
“We are also saying that there are some things that need to be done in terms of the legislation and framework for enforcement, plus there are also some legitimate instances in which you are going to have to deal with this as part of subsidies, for those who cannot pay.”