JPS building in New Kingston.
The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is urging the Office of Utilities Regulation
JAMAICA Public Service Company (JPS) will next month begin to roll out retail stores that will sell energy-saving products.
The light and power company says the initiative will kick-start a more ’empowering’ engagement with its customers going forward.
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Nicolette Hind shows off some of the eStore products during a promotion. |
“It’s actually the first time we are venturing into anything like this. We always supported and encouraged; what we are doing now is investing in empowerment, so we are going further,” Winsome Callum, JPS’s head of corporate communications, told Caribbean Business Report during an exclusive interview at the firm’s Ruthven Road, Kingston, outlet on Wednesday.
The new retail stores, branded “eStore”, will be located inside existing JPS customer service offices, with the first store scheduled to be opened on April 4 at the Ruthven Road outlet.
JPS will initially offer up to 40 different energy-savings products, including a variety of power efficient gadgets, timers and sensors, said the company’s director of sales and marketing, Garth McKenzie.
“Our products will fall into three major categories: equipment that will save energy, equipment that will protect your investment and equipment that will help you to understand your usages,” said McKenzie, noting that the company is targeting both the residential and corporate markets.
JPS has partnered with a number of overseas and local suppliers, including Nicorp Limited and its brand of surge protectors.
While items will be on sale, the stores will primarily focus on teaching consumers about energy consumption and how to save, McKenzie said.
“We will be consumed with looking for those things that can help people to change their habits and improve their energy efficiency. Energy efficiency has to be more than just wishing it; it needs some education, tools and gadgets,” said the sales and marketing executive.
JPS, which has 15 offices islandwide, will officially launch up to four ‘eStores’ before the end of the year, but will be offering the new services at all the locations. The company did not disclose how much money was being invested in the venture.
“We will be dressing up about two or three more locations (after Ruthven Road) by the end of the year. For the other dozen or so that won’t be dressed up, we will be branding the space to let people know that there is an eStore operation there,” McKenzie said.
JPS, for years, has had an uneasy relationship with the Jamaican public, who have become increasingly frustrated with high electricity bills and accuse the company of being rapacious. The relationship hit a low point two years ago when a wide cross-section of Jamaicans, including a government senator and an Opposition member of parliament at the time, joined a social network campaign and wore black in protest against exorbitant electricity bills from the energy provider.
McKenzie said the ‘eStore’ initiative is aimed at improving the company’s relationship with customers.
“We recognise that the value that JPS is giving is not matching up with the cost and this is an attempt to improve that value proposition,” McKenzie said.
“What people are unhappy with is the apparent lack of control that they have over their electricity bills,” he continued. “We are a business so we expect to earn money, but more importantly we need to have customers that are more empowered so that they are less disgruntled.”
JPS announced earlier this week that customers will see a 10 per cent hike in their electricity bills this month, largely due to higher fuel costs and the depreciation of the Jamaica dollar.
Against this background, Callum noted that different macroeconomic factors have made it now even more critical for Jamaicans to focus on energy savings. JPS wants to help consumers realise this goal, she said.
“People say they have tried conservation and they don’t see the results, so we want to help them to actually see results,” Callum noted.
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THE Jamaica Public Service (JPS) says customers will see a 10 per cent hike in their electricity bills this month, largely due to higher fuel costs and the depreciation of the Jamaica dollar.
“The high cost of the fuel bought from Petrojam to produce electricity, along with the continued devaluation of the Jamaican dollar, have resulted in an increase of approximately 10 per cent on customers’ March bills, relative to the bills they received in February,” the light and power company said in a release last night.
MONTEGO BAY, St James
THE electicity grid is so vulnerable to system shutdowns that its deficiencies and weaknesses could be viewed, in some instances, as an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
The factors leading to the last islandwide blackout, not related to a natural disaster, was found to be “typical of those which precipitated the three earlier system shutdowns, including the first major incident in 2006”, by the Office of the Utilities Regulations (OUR) investigation committee into electricity grid shutdown last August.
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“While the initiating circumstances are different in each case, the underlying sequence of system collapse from generators and transmission circuits tripping follow a familiar and parallel path,” said the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) Power System Integrity Investigation report, which was completed three weeks ago. “Human error and maintenance shortcomings have played a part, as well as manifested deficiencies in the islandwide grid and generation infrastructure.”
Last August, lightning strikes at a pole located on the Duhaney to Naggo Head 69kilovolt (kV) transmission line, as Tropical Storm Ernesto passed nearby the island, led to a shutdown.
But it was the lack of a protection relay, which apparently malfunctioned or was removed from the system the April before, which was “primarily blamed for precipitating the subsequent island-wide system collapse.
Similarly, in 2006, the failure of distance relays to operate at Duncans substation following a lightning strike to the Duncans to Bogue 138kV transmission line caused a system-wide shutdown.
In 2008, a fault on the Duhaney to Tredegar 38kV transmission line wasn’t cleared, after a pole fell to the ground.
The 2006 system shutdown was reviewed by Gowlings Consulting Incorporated and Rusnov Associates Limited, whose recommendations were complied with, in the main.
But the OUR technical staff believes that the most recent episode showed that where a “crucial protection relay was not repaired or replaced for some four months at Duhaney substation, that the intent of this system is not being achieved”.
Either way, the Duhaney substation is considered to be a “major weak link in the transmission grid integrity” because it serves as the only link between generators in the Corporate Area with the generating plants in Old Harbour and Bogue, St James.
“Any failure on either the 138kV, or in particular the 69kV, is likely to precipitate an islandwide System shutdown,” said the report.
The technical team found that the protective relaying system for the Duhaney substation was urgently in need of a complete review.
Also, “the 10 substations reported as not having SCADA visibility need to be put on the system as soon as possible”.
The SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system allows control engineers to remotely monitor and control the power system, and JPS has 53 substations in all.
“The current philosophy for grid restoration, based on JPS documented policy and operating instructions currently in place, appears satisfactory to adequately address system restoration procedures following a partial or complete shutdown of the system,” wrote the review committee.
However, the system restoration policy appears not to include a provision for a full analysis of the shutdown to be undertaken by technically competent personnel prior to grid restoration activities, in specific instances when the reason for the System shutdown is in doubt. It is recommended that the policy be revised to include analysis by technical personnel.
The committee did find the general system protection philosophy, which governs the basis of JPS’s installation of protective relays at generating stations and also at substations for busbars, transformers and transmission line protection, to be “generally adequate and meets international standards for reliable utility operation”.
“Nevertheless, it is recognised that the human factor plays an important role in the effectiveness of maintenance, together with the dedication to detail and a process of rigid management follow-up on defects is an issue of considerable concern,” said the report. “Indeed, recent system shutdowns have highlighted this problem and JPS needs to urgently remedy the human factor in order to prevent a repeat occurrence.”
In light of the frequency of total system shutdown events in the Jamaican power system (four in since 2006), the committee also recommends that the OUR considers the establishment of an on-going Grid Reliability Committee (GRC) as an added means of addressing issues impacting the reliability and security of the power system.
The group would meet regularly to identify items which currently threaten or could threaten grid integrity and ensure expediting of agreed remedies.
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THE electicity grid is so vulnerable to system shutdowns that its deficiencies and weaknesses could be viewed, in some instances, as an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
The factors leading to the last islandwide blackout, not related to a natural disaster, was found to be “typical of those which precipitated the three earlier system shutdowns, including the first major incident in 2006”, by the Office of the Utilities Regulations (OUR) investigation committee into electricity grid shutdown last August.
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“While the initiating circumstances are different in each case, the underlying sequence of system collapse from generators and transmission circuits tripping follow a familiar and parallel path,” said the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) Power System Integrity Investigation report, which was completed three weeks ago. “Human error and maintenance shortcomings have played a part, as well as manifested deficiencies in the islandwide grid and generation infrastructure.”
Last August, lightning strikes at a pole located on the Duhaney to Naggo Head 69kilovolt (kV) transmission line, as Tropical Storm Ernesto passed nearby the island, led to a shutdown.
But it was the lack of a protection relay, which apparently malfunctioned or was removed from the system the April before, which was “primarily blamed for precipitating the subsequent island-wide system collapse.
Similarly, in 2006, the failure of distance relays to operate at Duncans substation following a lightning strike to the Duncans to Bogue 138kV transmission line caused a system-wide shutdown.
In 2008, a fault on the Duhaney to Tredegar 38kV transmission line wasn’t cleared, after a pole fell to the ground.
The 2006 system shutdown was reviewed by Gowlings Consulting Incorporated and Rusnov Associates Limited, whose recommendations were complied with, in the main.
But the OUR technical staff believes that the most recent episode showed that where a “crucial protection relay was not repaired or replaced for some four months at Duhaney substation, that the intent of this system is not being achieved”.
Either way, the Duhaney substation is considered to be a “major weak link in the transmission grid integrity” because it serves as the only link between generators in the Corporate Area with the generating plants in Old Harbour and Bogue, St James.
“Any failure on either the 138kV, or in particular the 69kV, is likely to precipitate an islandwide System shutdown,” said the report.
The technical team found that the protective relaying system for the Duhaney substation was urgently in need of a complete review.
Also, “the 10 substations reported as not having SCADA visibility need to be put on the system as soon as possible”.
The SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system allows control engineers to remotely monitor and control the power system, and JPS has 53 substations in all.
“The current philosophy for grid restoration, based on JPS documented policy and operating instructions currently in place, appears satisfactory to adequately address system restoration procedures following a partial or complete shutdown of the system,” wrote the review committee.
However, the system restoration policy appears not to include a provision for a full analysis of the shutdown to be undertaken by technically competent personnel prior to grid restoration activities, in specific instances when the reason for the System shutdown is in doubt. It is recommended that the policy be revised to include analysis by technical personnel.
The committee did find the general system protection philosophy, which governs the basis of JPS’s installation of protective relays at generating stations and also at substations for busbars, transformers and transmission line protection, to be “generally adequate and meets international standards for reliable utility operation”.
“Nevertheless, it is recognised that the human factor plays an important role in the effectiveness of maintenance, together with the dedication to detail and a process of rigid management follow-up on defects is an issue of considerable concern,” said the report. “Indeed, recent system shutdowns have highlighted this problem and JPS needs to urgently remedy the human factor in order to prevent a repeat occurrence.”
In light of the frequency of total system shutdown events in the Jamaican power system (four in since 2006), the committee also recommends that the OUR considers the establishment of an on-going Grid Reliability Committee (GRC) as an added means of addressing issues impacting the reliability and security of the power system.
The group would meet regularly to identify items which currently threaten or could threaten grid integrity and ensure expediting of agreed remedies.
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Monopoly light distributor Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) recorded close to US$15 million (J$1.4b) in foreign exchange losses last year, reflecting one of its worst currency shocks ever.
The amount shows the brutal impact of depreciation of the Jamaican dollar on one of the largest local companies.
The forex losses in the calendar year reflect mainly the increase in cost to service JPS’s borrowing.
The company disclosed US$14.8 million of forex losses in 2012 compared to US$3.2 million in 2011. The dip was based on the 7.3 per cent depreciation of the Jamaica dollar against the USD arising in part from uncertainty of an International Monetary Policy agreement. The dollar closed the JPS financial year ending December at J$92.98.
JPS unaudited 2012 financials did not significantly explain the forex losses, and queries to the company were unanswered up to press time. JPS listed the loss as a gain but then added the amount to other costs – indicating an error.
Previous audited financials explained that the power utility incurs foreign currency risk primarily on “purchases and borrowings” that are denominated in a currency other than the United States dollar.
“The company manages foreign exchange exposure by maintaining adequate liquidity resources in the appropriate currencies,” stated JPS in its 2011 financials.
The utility purchased US$777 million worth of fuel for the year ending December 2012 and holds US$353.5 million in long-term loans.
Last year’s forex loss was among the worst on record since the company assumed foreign ownership in 2001.
Five years ago, in 2008, when the currency lost 15 per cent of its value, the company recorded US$8 million in forex losses.
In periods before 2008, when the company reported its earnings in local currency, the foreign exchange losses were: J$1.9 billion in 2003; J$313 million in 2004; J$620 million in 2005; J$593 million in 2006; and J$807 million in 2008.
JPS is owned by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, 40 per cent; South-Korea-based Korea East-West Power (EWP), 40 per cent; Government of Jamaica, 19.9 per cent; while 3,000 shareholders own the remaining 0.1 per cent of the shares.
The utility reported net profit of US$12.7 million (J$1.18b) last year on sales of US$1.14 billion (J$106b).
Equity increased US$7.6 million to US$387 million (J$36b).
business@gleanerjm.com
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KINGSTON, Jamaica
JPS president and CEO, Kelly Tomblin. – File
Monopoly power distributor, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), has reported a two-thirds drop in its annual net profit to US$12.7 million (J$1.18b) following flat sales last year.
Kelly Tomblin, JPS president and CEO, all but blamed the losses on “reduced consumption, at least for paying customers”. She spoke at the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce forum on energy at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.
JPS revenues dipped by almost US$12 million to US$1.14 billion (J$106b) for the year, according to financials published on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
Dividend payments to its Asian and Jamaican owners were slashed year-on-year resulting in a more than 200 per cent rise in cash to US$27.7 million for its year ending December 2012.
The power utility paid out US$5 million in ordinary dividends compared with US$44 million a year prior when net profit amounted to US$34.35 million.
The utility is owned by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, 40 per cent; South-Korea-based Korea East-West Power (EWP), 40 per cent; Government of Jamaica, 19.9 per cent; while 3,000 shareholders own the remaining 0.1 per cent of the shares.
EWP became a shareholder in April 2011 when it acquired the 40 per cent stake previously held by Abu Dhabi-based TAQA.
The company recorded a slight increase in fuel costs which totalled US$777 million for the year ending December 2012, compared with US$765 million in the prior year. Such costs are usually passed on to customers.
Working capital also increased to US$147 million from US$139 million year-on-year.
Equity increased US$7.6 million to US$387 million year-on-year.
The cost of fuel, as well as old inefficient plants, has weighed on the company’s service delivery and its bottom line. JPS has presented Government with its own proposal to develop a new energy plant but has not disclosed the proposed fuel mix.
The OUR says it will respond to that proposal, as well as others from potential investors in renewables, in March.
business@gleanerjm.com
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