ACCORDING to the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo), system losses fell by approximately 2 per cent this year with 16.8 per cent of the electricity generated by the company lost through technical and non-technical means thereby costing the utility company $1.5 billion a year.
This announcement follows a public hearing put on by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) on Monday to assess the JPSCo's application for a new tariff structure which will in effect increase the overall average tariff by 12 per cent therefore leading to a rise in residential customers' electricity bills.
In the business of transmitting and distributing power utilities incur some technical loss. This is the percentage of energy used up in the process of transmitting, distributing and converting energy to different voltage levels.
JPSCo's technical losses now stand at 11 per cent. However there is an optimal level of technical losses with which each electric utility can operate. Based on the configuration of JPSCo's network, the optimum technical loss level for the utility company is 8.5 per cent. This in effect means that JPSCo can only realistically reduce its technical losses by a maximum of 2.5 per cent.
Non-technical loss refers primarily to the electricity consumed through illegal abstraction (theft) from JPSCo's distribution system. This has proven to be a recurring problem with people stealing from the distribution line network. Last year, the street light network cost JPSCo $400 million, however only $70 million has been earmarked for this financial year which has caused concern among the various consumer groups.
General manager for corporate planning, Cedric Wilson said: "Obviously the losses are a problem and we are doing what we can to stem them. While JPSCo recognises that reducing losses by 8.3 per cent in the short term is the objective, it has now set itself an achievable target of 2 to 3 per cent over the next year."
The company is attempting to seriously address the reduction of losses with a new division established with a mandate to tackle this problem.
The strategies to be employed are:
The installation of capacitor banks at substations and on distribution lines
Voltage standardisation on the distribution system
Community Outreach Programmes to promote the legitimisation of service and bill payments in several communities
Meter Investigations Programme
The clearing of illegal connections from distribution lines by the Revenue Protection Department
The replacement of high loss transformers with low loss transformers.
The value of technical losses is calculated on the basis of the cost of generating and transmitting the electricity lost in this manner. A reduction in technical losses would mean that JPSCo would need to generate less electricity to satisfy demand.
The value of non-technical losses is calculated on the basis of the price per kilowatt hour for each unit of electricity sold to consumers.
