OUR keeping a close eye on JPS load shedding
Published:Tuesday | December 17, 2019 | 12:22 AM
Following the latest episode of load shedding by the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), causing outages in the sections of the island, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) says that it is keeping a close eye on the situation.
“We are doing our own checks as we normally do. We are monitoring the situation to see if this is going to increase in frequency, but we are also in dialogue with them, so we will continue monitoring it,” said Elizabeth Bennett Marsh, public education specialist at the agency.
On Saturday, JPS said that several of its generating units went offline, resulting in power outages in Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and Clarendon.
Winsome Callum, director of corporate communications and customer experience at JPS, said that the light and power company is working to reduce the likelihood of power outages during and after the Christmas season.
“We are doing everything to ensure that the lights are kept on for Christmas,” she told The Gleaner yesterday.
In 2017, JPS commenced the construction of a 190-megawatt natural gas power plant which was expected to be fully on stream in June. However, it has not yet been commissioned, but is expected to be online by year end.
“It is in the final stages of testing ahead of being commissioned,” Callum said, stating that she cannot give a definite date for its commissioning.
Last week, JPS commissioned a J$3.7-billion Hybrid Energy Storage System on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston as part of efforts to mitigate service interruptions that its customers suffer.