Power restored to storm-affected customers, says JPS

The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) says it has restored electricity to all customers affected by outages due to Tropical Storm Rafael earlier this week. 

JPS President and CEO, Hugh Grant, said all parishes had power restored as of 3 p.m. on Saturday.

He said the only exception is one business customer in Port Esquivel, St Catherine, who is still without service due to access issues from swampy terrain. Grant said JPS is working on relocating the supply line to reconnect the customer promptly.

“I am very happy that we were able to restore our customers ahead of the tight timeline we set for ourselves, and without any safety incident,” Grant said in a statement Saturday evening. “We were able to work closely with the ministry of energy, the Office of Utilities Regulation, various municipalities, members of parliament, and community representatives who helped us execute our strategy safely and quickly.”

Grant said JPS' incident command centre has been deactivated, signalling a return to normal operations. 

JPS, the island's main power provider, previously said up to 30,000 of its 692,000 customers lost power after Rafael passed near Jamaica between Tuesday and Wednesday. It triggered flooding and landslides in several parishes. 

The company faced significant public and government backlash over its response to the effects of Hurricane Beryl in July. 

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