OUR to Issue Directive to JPS for Timeline Compliance

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is to issue a directive to the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) for it to comply with the timeline it has given for the restoration of electricity in communities.

Director General of the OUR, Ansord Hewitt, made the disclosure during a post-Cabinet press briefing, held at Jamaica House on Wednesday (July 31).

Mr. Hewitt explained that this became necessary, as the JPS has missed previously established restoration dates.

“If they are missed, the JPS will be required to show that it took all reasonable steps within its means to have secured compliance,” he said.

Mr. Hewitt noted that in executing its regulatory mandate, the OUR has had to address billing issues to safeguard customer interests.

He said that in order to provide certainty to customers and to hold the utilities accountable for their quality-of-service performance, the OUR prescribed guaranteed standards, which state that JPS and the National Water Commission (NWC) should issue no more than two consecutive estimated bills to customers, provided there is access to the meter.

In addition, an estimated bill should be determined based on the average of the last three actual readings.

“However, in the case of a force majeure situation, the responsible Minister can provide a formal waiver upon an application by JPS. In the wake of Hurricane Beryl, when it came to our attention that JPS had notified its customers of a widescale use of estimated bills, the OUR summoned the company to a meeting to get details on customer impact and whether there could be other considerations,” Mr. Hewitt said.

He noted that at that meeting, the JPS reported that as of July 22, 485,000 bills were issued, of which 363,000 were based on actual meter readings and 122,000 were based on estimated consumption.

He said that a further 226,000 bills were to be issued, 170, 000 of which would be actual and 56,000 estimates. For the estimates, 36,000 relate to customers with smart meters and 20,000 to manually read meters.

Mr. Hewitt noted that arising from this engagement with JPS, the OUR has approved a proposal to adopt the following approach with respect to some 56,000 estimated bills that were not already issued.

“For 36,000 of these bills, which are for customers with smart meters, the bill for the cycle is to be issued based on the last recorded reading. For the remaining 20,000, which are for manual meters, the bill should be issued applying a factor of 0.6, to take account of days in the billing cycle for which they had no electricity supply,” Mr. Hewitt stated.

“This means that JPS will assess affected customers’ bills at 60 per cent of their normal charge or put another way, these customers will see a 40 per cent reprieve on the estimated bills they would otherwise have been required to pay,” he added.

In addition to its request for the OUR to approve the application of the 0.6 factor to the consumption estimate based on the last three readings to determine the net consumption, the JPS has also requested the OUR to do a number of other things.

These include to suspend or waive the requirements relating to the treatment of bills that show a monthly variance of plus or minus 30 per cent; and suspend or waive the OUR’s directive to adhere to a maximum of 31 days of service for the August billing period.

“As a practical consideration, the OUR has agreed to the above request. The OUR also instructed JPS to revert to it on the proposed treatment of the 122,000 customers who had already received estimated bills, and in particular those among that grouping who had significant number of days of no electricity usage. We are awaiting JPS’s proposal on this,” Mr. Hewitt said.

“After our meeting with JPS, the company announced a 20 per cent discount to approximately 350,000 residential customers who use 150 kilowatt hours or less of electricity and a one-off of $1,500 top-up of electricity credit for prepaid residential accounts. The OUR has commended JPS on these initiatives but has also pointed out to the company that for customers still without service, this does not represent a benefit. JPS has assured us that this situation will be taken into consideration in its dealing with customers whose electricity supply is still not restored,” he added.

Additionally, the JPS is to clarify the methodology to be applied to effect the discount.

Also, similar to what happened during the COVID 19 pandemic, the JPS has applied for the waiving of its guaranteed standards and overall standards.

“For the guaranteed standards, the JPS has asked that it not be held accountable for breaches, which would normally require financial compensation to customers. This request was made to the Minister as is the requirement under the licence,” the Director General said.

“The Minister has sought the OUR’s advice [and] as a part of the analysis of the application, will gather additional information and assess the extent to which events outside of its reasonable control have negatively impacted JPS’s performance of its licence obligation and which could not have been prevented or overcome by reasonable diligence as contemplated by the licence,” Mr. Hewitt added.

He further informed that the NWC has also applied for the waiver of some of its guaranteed standards, and that the OUR is currently reviewing that request.