(KINGSTON, Jamaica; 2024 July 30): Some electricity customers receiving estimated bills from the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) will get a 40% reprieve after the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) approved a mechanism for calculating these bills following Hurricane Beryl.
The decision follows a 2024 July 22 meeting between the OUR and JPS after the latter notified the public about issuing estimated bills to some customers due to its inability to access meters in some areas, especially those badly damaged by Beryl.
JPS advised that for the billing cycle, which commenced on July 8 and as at July 22, four hundred and eighty-five thousand (485,000) bills were issued, of which One Hundred and Twenty-Two Thousand (122,000) customers were billed based on estimated consumption. A further two hundred and twenty-six thousand bills (226,000) were yet to be issued of which 56,000 were to be billed on estimated consumption.
“Even though JPS is authorised to issue estimated bills, it must be recognised that this arrangement was constructed for normal conditions. Under circumstances where many communities have had no power for the majority of the billing period and are already feeling the financial fallout with the restoration of their homes and livelihoods, it cannot be fair…
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Contact: OUR’s Public Affairs Unit – publicaffairs@our.org.jmor 876-968-6053
