JPS October rate increase will hurt consumers
The proposal by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) to increase utility bills by 4.69 percent has been approved by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) and will take effect October 2021. It was rejected in August 2019 for failing to include detailed and crucial information.
The Electricity Act, last amended in 2016, allows the JPS to submit a Tariff Review Application every year outlining plans for a five-year period. The current five-year period runs from 2019-2023. Elizabeth Bennett Marsh, public education specialist at the OUR, reported that in the review JPS provided, it had outlined “projects, capital expenditure for the year, how they intend to perform, inflation rates, proposed non-fuel rates and electricity”. Additionally, Marsh said that in assessing all these factors the JPS was also required to make the OUR aware of the revenue they would need to carry out their capital projects for the year.
As part of its proposal, JPS recommended that beneficiaries on the PATH Programme be provided with government subsidies that would go towards their utility bills. According to OUR’s media release JPS’s detailed application takes into consideration classes in society including the vulnerable which allows for a separation of the residential and industrial areas, so as to not overcharge those who could not afford the increase. Marsh opined that there is a special rate for people who consume a minimum amount of electricity.
Marsh says the OUR is an economic regulator, so if JPS’s proposal allows growth for Jamaica’s electricity sector the OUR would have no reason to decline their proposal. Information from the OUR website shows that JPS intends to use their impending profits to complete terms of the electricity licence (2016) including moving from oil-fired generation fleets to new liquefied natural gas (LNS) and renewable energy and give customers the ability to track their light bills, while also modernizing their operations to become a smart system.
Due to the pandemic more people are staying home. Even though more electricity is being used at this time Marsh explained that an increase in usage of electricity at home does not automatically translate to an increase in revenue or profit for JPS.
Winsome Fearon, who travelled overseas recently and is now back at home after three months believes otherwise, as she says JPS should not have raised their bills when Jamaicans are staying home which means they are using more electricity and therefore paying more. Fearon expressed that her utility bill is, on average, approximately $16,000 and she shouldn’t be called on to pay more. She intends to file a complaint to the OUR.
Davion Clarke, a Metrodade security officer complains that his utility bill rapidly increased from $6,000 to $12,000 over the space of one month. Clarke does not support the increase in utility bills as the unemployment rate is also increasing and not everyone can afford “big light bills”. On the other hand a fellow JPS customer who lives in Old Harbour says they have not faced any problem with JPS and that they ‘practice energy saving’. The customer tracks their bills and whenever the price goes up they know what caused it.
