JPS bills councils separately for LED lamps
Disconnects when payments aren’t made
Erica Virtue, Senior Gleaner Writer
A practice by the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) to charge parish councils separately for light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs on roadways is infuriating councils, which claim that light is being disconnected from major thoroughfares.
The JPS has disconnected electricity on Ocean Boulevard, forcing the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to hoist high voltage bright lights atop its building to provide light for the area.
The same is true for the busy and accident-prone Marcus Garvey Drive, as light has been disconnected for non-payment of bills, even though the JPS still bills the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) $58 million monthly.
Last Wednesday, Town Clerk Errol Green said the KSAC has been examining different technologies to reduce the amount it pays to the JPS.
As part of that trend, all new roads in the municipality have been outfitted with low sodium bulbs.
“Even as I speak to you, the JPS has disconnected the light along Ocean Boulevard and along Marcus Garvey Drive. There are no lights there,” charged Green.
Ocean Boulevard bill
According to the town clerk, the UDC is responsible for the lights along Ocean Boulevard, but it is unfair for the JPS to ask the state entity to pay that bill when it already receives payment from the KSAC for streetlights.
Green said it was the view of some councils that the JPS was resisting efforts to use lower wattage bulbs across the system.
“At nights, the UDC has had to put up some bright bulbs on top of its buildings to provide light for the area, because the JPS has disconnected it,” claimed Green.
He said the bulbs on Ocean Boulevard were regular bulbs and not LED bulbs.
In the case of Marcus Garvey Drive along the dualised area near Tinson Pen aerodrome, the streetlights have been disconnected.
“There are no lights there, even though they still bill us. But those are more efficient bulbs that have been included,” said Green.
In defence of its actions, JPS said LED bulbs were not in the system at the time the rate approval was granted by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) and it is hoping to develop a specific rate for these bulbs.
Corporate relations manager at the JPS, Winsome Callum, said LED lamps account for less than 0.5 per cent of the total number of streetlights in the system and as a consequence the overall impact on bills would not be significant.
In the case of the disconnected sections of Washington Boulevard along the new stretch of road, Callum said: “During the period when the LED streetlights were in the name of the subcontractor no payment was made which resulted in disconnection,”
However the KSAC has rubbished the claims.
According to Green, the KSAC is billed separately for that stretch as the subcontractor was forced to take, a contract in his name as “that was the only way light would have been provided”.
According to Callum the JPS is moving to clarify the issue of the LED bulbs.
“The long-term plan is to have standardise LED streetlights across the system. The JPS is therefore now developing rates specific to LED lamps for consideration and approval by the OUR at the next rate review.”
erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com
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