THE Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) has been given until September 27 to provide a detailed report to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) on Saturday’s islandwide blackout.
A release from the OUR said that,as stipulated in the Electricity Act, 2015, the light and power company is obliged to provide a report to the regulator within 30 days of the date of restoration of power.
The OUR said it will indicate the critical data and other necessary information which should be included in the detailed report on the incident. At the meeting between the OUR and the JPS on Tuesday to discuss the power provider’s preliminary report, the implications of the power outage and the way forward, the regulatory body expressed disappointment with the islandwide power outage, the frequency of such events, and the negative impact on customers.
The OUR urged the JPS to be thorough and rigorous in its investigation and analysis of the incident and requested that they outline corrective measures to safeguard against recurrences, the release said. It added that the JPS has agreed to be guided by the position outlined by the regulator regarding the conduct of its investigation.
Deputy director general of the OUR, Hopeton Heron, said: “Once we have received all the required information from the JPS, the OUR is committed to completing its review of the information as well as its own investigation of the outage, within 30 days. We recognise the significant impact that this islandwide outage has had on customers and so we are committed to exerting all efforts to ensure that we quickly and efficiently do our own analysis and make our recommendations.”
He said, too, that the OUR will be insisting on the conduct of a thorough review of the electricity system including their approach to grid planning, design, installation, operation and maintenance.
