OUR requests plan from JPS to address gaps resulting from customer service office closures
Published:Sunday | May 18, 2025 | 2:40 PM
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has asked the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) to develop a plan to address the gap in access to their services caused by the closure of 10 of its 15 Customer Service Offices (CSOs) across the island between February 2020 and March 2021.
The OUR says its Parish Closure Impact Assessment (Phase 2) found that 77 per cent of JPS’ customers in parishes without CSOs want the offices to be reopened. It says cost, convenience and access are the main reasons given by customers for requesting reopening of the offices.
The OUR has asked the JPS to consider, as part of its plan to address the gap, opening convenient hubs in high-traffic areas or at post office locations, making the MyJPS Mobile App zero-rated to offset any increased cost to customers to access JPS services through this channel, and negotiating with bill payment agencies to install courtesy phones at these locations.
OUR Director General, Ansord Hewitt, says, “While the OUR is reluctant to prescribe specific modes for utilities to address their customer service obligations, it remains unequivocal in its position that the options offered must not impose undue inconvenience or hardship for customers to access or make use of them. In this regard, we encourage JPS to consider creating more face-to-face options for customers and explore other options to close the gaps highlighted by affected customers.”
The OUR says only five JPS Customer Service Offices now serve over half a million customers.
It says the JPS has justified the closures by citing dwindling walk-in visits to their CSOs, fuelled by digitisation, further impelled by the Government and globally imposed ‘no-contact’ COVID-19 policies, which restricted customer footprint.
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