OUR seeking answers on last night’s islandwide blackout

JPS orders preliminary report from JPS by Monday June 8 

Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is seeking answers from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) on last night’s islandwide blackout whilst acknowledging the significant inconvenience caused to residential, commercial, and critical service customers across Jamaica.

The OUR, which regulates the electricity sector, is actively engaging JPS to determine the cause of the outage, assess the adequacy of its response, and is seeking to get an update on system stability. JPS has advised that service has been restored to customers island-wide and it will continue to monitor the system for stability. 

The OUR has requested a preliminary report from JPS by this Monday June 8 to include the sequence of events, contributing factors, and the nature and impact of the outage on the generation, transmission, and distribution systems, as well as on its supply to customers. 

The OUR has also asked for information regarding immediate corrective measures to minimise the likelihood of recurrence. This will be a precursor to the more detailed report, which JPS is obliged to provide to its regulator within 30 days of the restoration of power, as stipulated in the Electricity Act, 2015. 

The OUR remains committed to protecting the interests of utility consumers and will provide further updates as more information becomes available. Customers are encouraged to stay informed through official channels and to report any persistent service issues to their service provider.