St Bess faces new delay in power restoration
Published:Friday | August 9, 2024 | 12:13 AM
Thousands of residents in St Elizabeth are to remain in the dark for several more weeks after the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) announced a delay in restoring electricity to certain areas of the parish.
The power company revealed a revised deadline of August 31 for sections of the Breadbasket Parish, but said that it remains on schedule to complete full restoration across all other parishes by August 12.
It said its distribution infrastructure in St Elizabeth was almost obliterated during the passage of the Category 4 Hurricane Beryl, which battered the southern section of the island on July 3.
“This is a rebuilding process, not a restoration,” said JPS’s new president and CEO, Hugh Grant, who visited the parish earlier this week.
He said that based on the extent of the devastation, the electrical infrastructure that supplies sections of St Elizabeth needs to be completely rebuilt.
The JPS boss said that in some areas, the network will need to be redesigned and lines relocated. He said the rebuilding process would be challenging and tedious because of the difficult rocky terrain in which the JPS is working.
“We are acutely aware of the frustration being experienced by our customers who are still without electricity, and we know this is not what they want to hear from us right now,” Grant acknowledged.
However, he said the JPS would be doing everything it can to expedite restoration, noting that it has acquired additional equipment and forged new partnerships with local and overseas contractors and suppliers.
“We will be redeploying resources from across the other parishes to focus exclusively on St Elizabeth over the next few weeks. And today, a team of linemen is coming in from the Manitoba Hydro Electric Utility in Canada to join our CARILEC colleagues, who are already providing support for our local teams,” Grant said.
PRIORITY ATTENTION
He indicated that priority attention would be given to critical water pumps as well as educational institutions in St Elizabeth during the rebuilding process.
Grant said the JPS would work closely with the local representatives and would be in the communities with outreach activities to help ease the residents’ discomfort and support their journey to full recovery.
The JPS said it would provide further details of the specific communities in St Elizabeth that would be affected by the delay in the restoration of electricity.
The company said it has now restored electricity to approximately 98 per cent of its customers islandwide.
Yesterday, Energy Minister Daryl Vaz noted that a week ago, the JPS reported that 20,597 customers remained without electricity.
A week later, he said the figure had been reduced to approximately 16,000.
“The situation for me is that that’s not good enough. The fact of the matter is that August 10 and 12 are their two deadlines for the remaining restoration, and I suspect that you will hear that there are some areas that will be delayed,” said Vaz.
“Percentages mean absolutely nothing to me. The 16,000 customers are who mean everything to me and the fact is that I just hope that the OUR (Office of Utilities Regulation) will continue the pressure as I have been doing with JPS for them to give us the dates, the communities, and the timeline,” he added.
The JPS is facing a $2-million fine if it fails to meet the 100 per cent restoration target set for August 12.