Utilities warn regulatory delays are driving up costs
Published:Thursday | April 30, 2026 | 12:07 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Leaders of the country’s main utility firms are calling for a quicker turnaround on regulatory approvals and policy decisions, warning that prolonged delays are undermining investment, inflating costs and slowing the delivery of essential services.
Hugh Grant, president and chief executive officer of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), said deferred decision-making remains one of the most pressing challenges facing the sector.
“One of the challenges we have with regulators is delays in decision-making or deferred decision-making,” Grant said. “Delays in decision-making result in upward pressure on cost.”
Speaking during a Utility Service Providers round-table discussion under the theme “Utility Perspectives on Regulation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Learnings” at the 20th annual conference of the Organisation of Caribbean Utility Regulators, held at the Ocean Coral Spring Resort and Spa in Trelawny on Tuesday, Grant said drawn-out approval timelines often render projects outdated before they even begin.
“Many years later, when you go in with implementation, the costs are higher,” he noted. “For example, when we have a particular transmission facility that needs to be built, and after deliberating and going back and forth, the load has grown in the interim.”
He added that the lag between planning and execution ultimately hurts consumers.
“All those years that had been lost before you put the shovels in the ground result in upward pressure to the customers that we are all trying to best serve.”
Grant argued that regulators and utilities must move with greater urgency in a rapidly evolving global environment.
“It’s very important that we be more nimble and agile in how we do what we do, especially when you have an industry that is transforming right under our eyes.”
He also questioned existing regulatory constructs, including timelines around integrated resource planning and rate-case approvals.
“The construct around an integrated resource plan, many times it’s late… that has to be evaluated to see what can we do to expedite that, so we can deliver on the assets being built to meet the needs of the customers.”
SLOW PACE FOR GLOBAL TECH CHANGE
Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager of FLOW Jamaica, echoed the call for speed and efficiency, pointing to the lengthy and complex approval processes required to roll out telecommunications infrastructure.
“To get one site up in my country takes an average of probably about 14 months,” Price said. “I have to go through NEPA [National Environment and Planning Agency], Ministry of Health, [the] municipality… all these things in order to get a site up.”
He argued that such delays are out of step with the pace of global technological advancement.
“These are technologies that are used globally… but still we have to go through this process over and over again. We could have much more proliferation of coverage right across this country if we were able to unlock that.”
Price added that while no single agency can solve the issue, stronger coordination is critical. “We have to find a way to have a connected government, regulator, etc, in a more efficient way so these things can happen.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Murad, chief executive officer of Digicel Jamaica, called for stronger regulatory support to tackle infrastructure theft and vandalism, which he said continue to drain resources from the sector.
“We would like to see pressure from the regulator on the policymakers and the judiciary system to make those things a much stronger deterrent,” Murad said. “I can’t tell you the amount of money we have wasted in terms of time, energy, resources, CapEx spend, OPEX spend, that we have to face here in Jamaica every single day.”