By Lynford Simpson,
Staff Reporter
UNSCHEDULED POWER outages being experienced by Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) customers over the past 10 days are expected to continue over several weeks.
JPSCo's management has blamed this on an increase in demand for electricity among residential customers, which has severely eroded the company's reserve margin, and units being taken out of service for maintenance.
In addition, problems have been cited with diesel engines at the Rockfort-based Jamaica Private Power Company (JPPC), one of the largest independent providers of electricity with 60 megawatts.
"The growth in demand (for electricity) and our smaller reserve margin have marginally increased the risk of interruptions," said Robert Patrick, JPSCo's chief operations manager. He said the situation was made worse when plants had to be taken out of service for planned maintenance.
Residential customers are largely responsible for the increase in demand which has whittled away the reserve margin of the light and power company. The margin, which stood at 50 per cent in 1994, is now a meagre 18 per cent. Housing developments in the Greater Portmore area of St. Catherine and elsewhere, are largely responsible for the growing demand for electricity among residential users. JPSCo has admitted that no additional capacity has been put in place to meet the demand.
Mr. Patrick told The Gleaner that problems at the JPPC have compounded the situation. He explained that one of the two diesel engines used by the company with a 30-megawatt capacity, developed crankshaft problems. The other with a similar capacity was "taken out for inspection".
Efforts by The Gleaner to get comments from the company on the weekend were unsuccessful.
Meantime, the number two unit at the JPSCo's Old Harbour plant, which has a 65-megawatt capacity, has been taken out of service for "planned maintenance" until the end of March. Against the background of additional pressure being placed on an already slim reserve margin, Mr. Patrick said the "risk of interruptions and inability to meet demand would increase somewhat".
