Three-member team to begin JPS negotiations

Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter

A HIGH-powered team has been appointed by Cabinet to urgently meet with the hierarchy of the Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd (JPS) to negotiate what the administration is calling its mandate to liberalise the distribution of electricity in Jamaica, which is now monopolised by the light and power company.

Gordon Shirley, the principal of the University of the West Indies and a former JPS chairman when the entity was solely owned by the Government, will lead a team including Professor Evan Duggan, head of the Mona School of Business, and Fitzroy Vidal, chief architect of energy policy in the ministry, to sit at the negotiating table with the top brass of the light and power company.

Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Phillip Paulwell, said yesterday that the high cost of electricity posed a serious threat to the viability of the local productive sector.

Pressing issue

Paulwell said the pressing issue that has been brought forcibly to the administration's attention is JPS and the high electricity bills.

He said that against this background, the Government has appointed a strong team with a mandate to "achieve liberalisation of the grid".

"At 40 cents per kilowatt hour, there is no way this country can survive. We are not going to see new jobs and, in fact, those businesses that remain, whether they are involved in the production of goods and services, are going to continue to decline," Paulwell argued yesterday during a press conference at the ministry's offices in New Kingston.

More important than telecoms

According to Paulwell, breaking the JPS monopoly on the distribution of electricity was, for the ordinary Jamaican, far more important than ending the stranglehold Cable & Wireless had on the telecommunications sector in 1999.

The energy minister said he met with JPS last week and the company submitted a proposal on how it intended to reduce energy prices over a period of time.

While applauding the JPS for its efforts, Paulwell said competition in the distribution of electricity in Jamaica would be introduced.

"We intend to fervently pursue that mandate," he added.

Paulwell said liberalisation of the sector would create a "win-win situation for the JPS" and consumers.

"I intend to show that it would be a win-win situation for JPS and the country.

"I am sure they don't want to be in the position as Cable & Wireless was by resisting and therefore was unprepared. We want to make this a smooth transition and for JPS to remain viable."

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com