More power for the people as JPS reduces the frequency of outages across the island

Arthur Hall, Senior News Editor

On the eve of its application for a rate increase, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is vowing to improve the quality of service it delivers to its customers, with the frequency of power cuts and the length of those blackouts at the top of its to-do list.

Senior vice-president with responsibility for customer operations and support services at the JPS, Gary Barrow, says already the company has improved its performance in this area.

"We felt that was so critical ... . You recall that about 10 years ago where every day there was an outage, and I think we have come a far way in removing that perception and reality," Barrow told The Sunday Gleaner during a recent interview.

He said last year the JPS recorded a 14.6 per cent reduction in the frequency of outages and a 16.2 per cent reduction in the length of these power cuts.

"Normally, even when a company goes very aggressive at improving these utility indexes, they may get a two or three per cent each year. We actually saw an approximately 15 per cent improvement last year," said Barrow as he underscored that he is still not satisfied.

Barrow said the leadership of the JPS conducted a review of its vision and mission, and came to a common position that it should lead the energy revolution which has already started in Jamaica.

He said with the review, the leadership of the JPS determined that there were a number of systems that needed fixing, and the first one to focus on was the "outage management system".

In the wake of the findings of the review, the JPS instituted a new outage-management system that was commissioned early December last year.

Barrow noted that the new system maps the network grid and can determine the fault that has caused the power outage.

"If there is a fault on the line and your power goes out, we would have to send a crew there, they would patrol the line to find out the location of the problem, and that could take hours. Now the customers are mapped to the transformer and the system can determine if the problem is with a transformer or a particular fuse."

In addition, the JPS has instituted switches on its network which allow it to narrow the outage to the smallest area remotely.

"So what would normally take two hours to get rectified can actually take minutes," said Barrow.

He added that the JPS can now monitor its repair crews in real time so that information can be shared and customers can be given correct information on how long the outage will last.

"The nature of the outage will determine how long we will take to restore ... but our primary objective will be to get back the power to the customer as quickly as possible."

UPGRADED SYSTEM

The JPS executive added that the company is installing an upgraded customer information system which will take care of service orders, bill payments and other customer interaction.

Barrow's comments came days before the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) announced that JPS has delayed its submission for a rate review for the period 2014 to 2019.

According to the OUR, the JPS was due to file its five-year tariff review on March 1, in keeping with the terms of its licence.

But the company has said that it intends to file the application on or before March 31, 2014. There has been no indication yet as to the level of increase the company will seek.