JPS says power fully restored to St Elizabeth three days ahead of schedule

President of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), Hugh Grant, is reporting that the company has completed restoration of electricity to all communities in St Elizabeth three days ahead of its August 31 deadline.

Grant made the announcement this afternoon at a JPS-sponsored back-to-school treat held in the Ginger Hill community in the parish.

St Elizabeth was among the worst affected by the passage of Category 4 Hurricane Beryl on July 3. The infrastructure was severely damaged, which resulted in the light and power company taking almost two months to restore electricity to the entire parish.

“On the point of restoration, JPS has now completed power restoration in the parish of St Elizabeth three days ahead of schedule. And right in time for back to school – one of the biggest events in the life of our young people and their families,” Grant said.

However, he noted that there are a few customers who have issues on their properties that are preventing them from being connected to the grid.

He assured that those issues will be dealt with in the coming weeks as work is being done in partnership with these customers to resolve them.

“I want to declare [that] some customers may still have issues on their properties, which is preventing them from recovering supply now that their communities are back. We are working with those customers to have those issues resolved so we can get them the power because power is in the communities,” the JPS president and chief executive officer said.

Grant also noted that there are some customers for whom they had no contact, which could be due to access issues as a result of roadways being impassable because of flooding and landslides from the impact of the hurricane.

“Sections of the network have been completely rebuild and this rebuilding will continue in the ensuing weeks and that will be done on a planed basis,” Grant told the St Elizabeth residents. 

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