Post-Melissa electricity grid restoration at 84%

The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) has restored service to 84 per cent of its customers seven weeks after the passage of Hurricane Melissa and with the Government’s sign-off on a US$150-million loan to the utility company that is intended to accelerate restoration of the island’s main electricity grid.

As a result, residents relying on the services of the National Water Company (NWC) pumping station in Rock River, Clarendon, can breathe a sigh of relief due to that station being among the latest to have electricity restored.

The electricity lines running from Anchovy to Bickersteth in St James have also been restored – a relief to homeowners, business operators, and key services there, noted Daryl Vaz, minister of energy, transport, and telecommunications. He promised strict oversight of the loan and its intended purposes.

The JPS’s promise is to move beyond the 84 per cent restoration early in the new year, subject to safety and access conditions, he relayed.

“I want to assure the country that this will be monitored by both the Government and the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to make sure there is no diversion and to meet the specified timelines of restoration,” he said during a press briefing held yesterday to update the nation on the JPS’s accelerated restoration efforts.

“This is a five-year loan to be repaid in full on December 18, 2030, [at an] interest rate of 5.5 per cent with an option to repay the aggregate principal amount of the loan or balance then outstanding after two years on December 18, 2027,” said Vaz, noting that by July 2027, a new electricity licence would be in place.

This means, he said, “that if JPS is successful in negotiating a new licence, they will be in a position to raise capital to pay the loan, and if they are not, the Government of Jamaica, based on the existing licence, will have to acquire assets which made it a logical decision for Government to fast-track restoration”.

Vaz reported that 97 per cent of all major public and private hospitals islandwide have been fully restored and so, too, the bulk of Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, Portland, and St Thomas.

Meanwhile, Westmoreland has 88 per cent of its customers still without electricity; St Elizabeth, 50 per cent; St James, 45 per cent; Trelawny, 39 per cent; and Hanover 36 per cent.

According to the minister, some 300 more linemen from North America and specialised vehicles and equipment are to arrive on the island, and their crews will be assigned primarily to Westmoreland, St Elizabeth, St James, Hanover, and Trelawny, alongside JPS teams and local contractors.

Engineering and planning personnel have also been mobilised to support the redesign and rebuilding of heavily damaged sections of the network.

Bill increase

In the meantime, Vaz noted a seven per cent increase in JPS bills for electricity consumption in November, which he said was approved by the OUR. This adjustment reflects higher fuel costs and temporary loss of natural gas availability in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

He said the JPS and the OUR have been working to defer a portion of these increased costs, spreading recovery over several months to avoid bill shock and ease the burden on consumers.

“The bottom line is that the current JPS licence cannot continue in its current form. For this reason, as energy minister, I could not entertain the extension of the existing licence and the existing terms for another 15 years. The current licence does not protect the consumer, and the independent regulator can do very little to intervene,” he said.

“Though this increase is significantly less than the amounts announced post-Hurricane Beryl, which was as high as 16 per cent, the position of the Government is that we must have a licence that protects the interests of all stakeholders,” he said.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com