The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), says it is continuing efforts to restore electricity service to customers, following islandwide outages related to lightning, high winds and heavy rainfall.

Thousands of Jamaicans were left without power last night, after widespread outages. Several persons complained on social media about the lack of power as Jamaica entered its 50th birthday.

Some customers in Portmore, sections of St Mary, Portland, and St Andrew are still without supply.

As at 6:00 am this morning , service had been restored to more than 80 percent of JPS' customers, as the company worked through the night to restore normalcy, a release from JPS said.

"Preliminary indications are that the most significant cause of the outages was a severe lightning strike that affected JPS' Duhaney substation and possibly other areas, just before midnight on Sunday, August 5. Restoration efforts began immediately, with supply returned to most customers within a few hours," the release said.

"JPS has been on high alert since Friday, as we knew the inclement weather conditions associated with Tropical Storm Ernesto would have some impact on the power system. A system wide impact is extreme but must be included in worst case scenario planning," said Ricardo Rennalls, VP, Technical
Services.

JPS thanked its customers for your patience and understanding.