OUR to get JPS report on St Ann power outage

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) expects to receive from the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) a detailed report on the outage at the Cardiff Hall substation that affected more than 20,000 customers in Runaway Bay, St Ann, on June 24.

As stipulated in the Electricity Act 2015, JPS is obliged to deliver this report to the OUR within 30 days of the date of restoration of power, and it is, therefore, expected that the report will be submitted by July 25.

In its preliminary report to the OUR, on June 27, the JPS stated that on Saturday, June 24, at approximately 8:12 p.m., there was an electrical fault that caused an interruption of supply to customers served from the Cardiff Hall substation.

14 hours without electricity

Approximately 22,449 customers connected to the service area were without electricity for more than 14 hours. The affected communities were: Runaway Bay, Discovery Bay, Salem, Queen's Highway, James Hill, Bohemia, Cave Valley, Nine Miles, Watt Town, Aenon Town and surrounding areas.

JPS indicated that it received reports of a major explosion and subsequent fire at the substation. The fire was extinguished following removal of the substation from the 69kV supply and additional cooling down operations executed by JPS personnel. The company also advised that power was restored to all customers by 10.30 a.m. on June 25.

At a meeting of the Economy and Production Committee of Parliament, representatives of JPS recently assured lawmakers that measures were being put in place to prevent any recurrence of the April 17, 2016 power failure that left most of the country in darkness.

At the committee meeting, Ansord Hewitt, director general of the OUR, indicated that the regulatory body was expected to receive from the Ministry of Energy a proposal on a scheme of sanctions which would be applied when the JPS breaches the Electricity Act of 2015.