(KINGSTON, Jamaica; 2021 September 27): The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has received complaints of frequent power outages from several communities across the island, with claims of many occurring daily and lasting for prolonged periods.
In addition to customer complaints in Clarendon, Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine and Trelawny, the OUR has also received correspondence from the Mayor of May Pen, Mr. Winston Maragh about this ongoing occurrence, which he says is affecting several communities in Clarendon.
It has also taken note of a recent media release issued by the Member of Parliament for South East St. Andrew, Mr. Julian Robinson, calling for the OUR’s intervention to “prevent the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited from continuing its practice of wholesale daily disconnection of entire communities, as a means of addressing electricity theft”.
The OUR advises that it has already started its investigation and had written to JPS in August requesting information that can assist in its probe. The OUR is awaiting JPS’s response and will provide a further update once it has completed its investigation. In the meantime, OUR wishes to make clear that it has not approved any policy or measure that would see the use of outages as a means to control electricity losses.
