Light bill fury

Massive and unexplained increases to paying customers for electricity usage and charge in August and September have many Jamaicans furious at light and power company Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

The outrage has been expressed on social media, talk shows and other public fora while 300 complaints have been lodged with the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) since July mostly for disputed bills.

One of 16 persons who responded to a social media post asking for persons to tell their JPS bill story was the grandson of a 79-year-old Manchester man who lived alone. His only electrical usage comes from a 9-cubic ft refrigerator, a radio, three light bulbs in the two-room house and a phone charger. The service was disconnected in early October as he was unable to pay the bill which he says has gradually moved up from $1,900 in May, to $11,000 in September. “Miss a must tell you that is must be duppy using this light. This is a ghost bill. For nobody, not even JPS can explain this. It’s the same thing in the house for the last four years. When him charge the phone it keep charge for almost a week because him don’t use it if we don’t call to check if him alright,” Shawn Morgan told The Gleaner.

The senior citizen’s bill has been steadily climbing for the last six months, but the jump from August to September is the starkest. In August it was $6,500 and a month later it was $11, 190. Morgan who works as a security guard said the electricity was disconnected because the pensioner could not make the payment. When he sought an explanation from the company, “They said the bill was not an estimated one so it has to be paid.” Morgan said it was hard to explain as the Government provided a four-month subsidy for customers who used 200kWh and under effective May 1, 2022.

Another respondent was a 55-year-old mother of three grown children – none residing with her – who says she lives in a two-bedroom apartment. She has two 18-inch Lasco fans; two televisions, two radios, five energy-saving bulbs, a 21-cubic ft refrigerator, and a phone which is charged nightly. The divorcee explained that she washes biweekly and has the majority of her clothes drycleaned.

“Somebody needs to explain my monthly bills of $18,000-$25, $26, and $27,000. For the entire week the water heater will turn on for two hours maximum, and that is when I am washing. I plug out the fridge during the days because no one is there, and nobody can explain to me why the bills are so high,” she wailed in frustration.

According to her, she lives in constant harassment from the owner who complains about the usage which is part of her rent. “He told me that when he went to JPS to query the bills, the next months, and all the other tenants light bill went up by $5,000, including his bill and he lives in darkness almost trying to save on electricity cost. Don’t care how I tell him I am not using the electricity he is still harassing me. I am sick and tired of both landlord and JPS. I am sorry I don’t live where I can legally steal electricity,” she explained.

Six of the bills showed a 50 per cent increase between July and September, four ranged from 70-80 per cent increase and another four doubled. No one has made any purchase of electrical appliances since the start of the year.WAGE BILL

Meanwhile, JPS which is allowed to recover costs for losses associated with transmission and distribution reflected a wage bill in September which is nearly triple that of the four previous months. JPS’s wage bill in September was $1,760,896,991.33 compared to its August bill of $616,036,671.00. The three previous months recorded total payments ranging from $621.7M in May; $615.7 in June and $601.7 in July. The JPS also settled outstanding salary and emoluments for 130 linesmen from 2019/20; 20/21; 21/22. It expires in December.

The Gleaner could not ascertain the total cost of the retroactive payments. The men are represented by the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) and National Workers Union (NWU), respectively. The agreement was signed in August, the same month the OUR increase was granted and became effective January 1, 2021. JPS submitted its application for the 2022 annual adjustment to the OUR in May 10, 2022 which is a requirement of the licence that mandates how the company operates. It was granted a 0.7 per cent rate increase by the OUR which was short of what the company sought. However there is no line item on a bill explaining what percentage of that bill is cost recovery. In fact there is no disclosure of how those costs are recovered from customers.

Responses to questions sent to JPS two weeks ago did not say what the estimated earnings would be generated by the 0.7 per cent increase. As at the end of October, all customers’ bills have reflected increases, JPS said.

“The 0.7 per cent rate adjustment took effect on August 22, 2022. By now almost all customers would have received bills reflecting the increase,” said the JPS in response to questions from The Gleaner.

Asked what accounts for the jump in October, JPS said increased fuel costs was the main factor – and partially blamed Petrojam for rising costs to purchase oil. “The main factors contributing to increases in bills in October are: an increase in the fuel charge, and the application of the 0.7 per cent increase. In some cases, customers have also increased their usage, resulting in higher bills. Overall, the major portion of the increase is due to the increase in the fuel charge, which moved from J$31 per kWh in September to J$37 per kWh in October,” said the JPS.

But Petrojam’s general manager Winston Watson has dismissed the argument, saying it is not a major supplier of oil to the company. New Fortress Energy, which the JPS says supplies it with LNG, did not respond to The Gleaner’s queries last week. According to JPS, the mandatory annual review takes into consideration several factors including actual and planned investments, operational performance, inflation, FX, actual demand, forecasted demand, to derive whether or not tariffs need to change in order for JPS to continue to fulfil its regulatory agreed mandate. There is no guarantee of an increase with an annual adjustment – sometimes the regulator decreases the tariffs based on the annual review. In July JPS told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum that costs associated with electricity theft to the company and paying customers was estimated at US$200 million, or more than $30.5 billion, annually. The sum is a whopping 80 per cent more than that estimated a decade ago. The loss is recovered from paying customers, but there is no definitive explanation how it was done. The company declined to provide its wage bill for August, September and October 2022. It was also asked how it recovers revenue lost from customers leaving the grid.

“The level of grid defection is not significant at this time, but the possibility of large commercial and industrial customers leaving the grid is a cause for concern. The cost of operating the grid will remain the same, and this cost will be shared by persons remaining on the grid. It is therefore in everyone’s interest for our large business customers to remain on the grid to help keep costs down,” the company said. Large companies said punitive electricity costs have forced them to leave the grid and provide their own source of energy. Costs were deleterious to their bottom line, they have long argued. JPS added 10,965 new customers to the grid since the start of the year but concedes that there have been supply chain challenges which resulted in delays in adding more customers. The company said it was not true that any customers’ bills increased by 300 per cent. DEEPER INVESTIGATION

Shortly after the increase was granted, Portfolio Minister Daryl Vaz blasted JPS for its poor handling of customer satisfaction issues. He questioned the increase granted and listed prolonged delays in adding new customers to the grid due to a shortage of necessary equipment and parts, and the persistent unscheduled power outages. More than 10,000 customers were left without electricity in September as a result of an unscheduled outage. The company was also criticised for disconnecting service to paying customers in communities where electricity theft was high. Vaz said that despite several meetings and conversations with JPS officials where he has communicated the urgent need to rectify the problems, little was done.

Vaz summoned the body to a meeting with Cabinet and they met on September 12. “The meeting went well. There have been subsequent meetings with the minister, as part of the continuing discussions about Jamaica’s strategy to achieve energy security,” JPS said.

According to the OUR, in September, 69 complaints were received regarding billing matters – the traditional area with the most complaints across utilities.

“This increased to 107 complaints on JPS billing matters in 2022 October. Of this number, 74 pertained to disputed charges. Notably, the OUR’s consumer affairs unit (CAU) periodically sees spikes in customer complaints. For example, on the matter of billing complaints, there were 103 complaints received in 2022 July. There were 89 for August.

Communication Manager Elizabeth Marsh said the OUR assesses each complaint on its own merit. “If there are concerns about ‘massive increases’ in bills, this is flagged for deeper investigation by the OUR. Checks are still being conducted in this regard, which includes assessing whether the customer has sought to have the matter addressed by JPS and the outcome of that complaint with their utility provider,” she told The Gleaner.

The OUR, she said, consistently monitors the media for trends/upticks in any utility matter that requires its attention.