OUR raises concerns over massive spike in JPS outages
Published:Tuesday | November 5, 2024 | 12:10 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is raising concerns about a massive 168 per cent surge in forced outages reported by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), with numbers jumping from 49,243 in December 2019 to 132,226 in 2023.
Of the 136,552 outages JPS recorded in 2023, 132,226 were classified as forced outages, largely attributed to “equipment failure” and “vegetation impingement”.
The OUR, in its 2023-2024 annual report, tabled in Parliament last week, described the outages as being “excessively high”.
According to the regulatory company, the situation resulted in frequent and sustained interruptions in electricity supply to customers across the network, and has translated to substantial economic and social impact.
It, however, noted that, based on the data, JPS’s reliability performance for 2021 and 2022 resulted in financial penalties for the company.
“The evaluation of the 2023 outage data implies that there will also be penalties for this period,” it said.
At the same time, the OUR cautioned that, while factors like COVID-19 and tropical storms have affected utility operations, “these events were not the main drivers of JPS’s deteriorating reliability performance”, with internal issues more to blame.
“Even though these outage factors are recognised across the industry to be responsible for some system outages, particularly in systems with predominately overhead electricity networks, as it is in the JPS’s case, the number of forced outages recorded for 2020-2023 was excessively high.
“This raises considerable concern about the efficacy of JPS’ system reliability programme, as well as the level of planning and preparedness to withstand, respond and recover rapidly from potential disruptions during the annual hurricane season,” it said.
The report also noted that JPS’s key reliability metrics worsened in 2023, with the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) rising to 11.8 interruptions per customer — up 57.3 per cent from 2022 — while the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) reached 2,403.3 minutes per customer, marking a 21.1 per cent increase over the previous year.
Although the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) dropped to 204 minutes per interruption, this still fell short of the 120-minute target, the report said.
The OUR also raised concerns about JPS’s explanation that adverse weather events caused the spikes, emphasising that forced outages driven by equipment issues and vegetation interference “far exceed” what should typically result from storm impacts.
“According to JPS, the deterioration in performance in the reliability indices (SAIFI, SAIDI and CAIDI) over the period is largely due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of tropical storms (Elsa, Grace, Ida, and others) that has passed close to the island. However, the named tropical storms were classified as relatively weak weather systems when their effects were experienced in Jamaica,” the report stated.
It added: “Moreover, the annual outage datasets for 2019-2023 indicate that the dominant causes of system-forced outages (the basis for the quality indices) annually are “equipment failure” and “vegetation encroachment”, which are not directly linked to storm events. Even though the OUR acknowledges that the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of the tropical storms may have imposed some constraints on JPS’s utility operations, the data show that these events were not the main drivers of JPS’s deteriorating reliability performance.”
The regulator called for JPS to improve “practicable and workable prevention/mitigation mechanisms”. It also said it was examining JPS’s ability to “withstand, respond and recover rapidly” from disruptions.
The OUR said the situation will be the subject of further review and analysis.