Jamaican Parishes Hit By Another Power Outage

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) Tuesday confirmed a number of power outages across several districts even as The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) said that it is actively engaging with the JDS on last Friday’s island-wide electricity interruption.

In a brief statement, the JPS said that customers lost service due to a loss of gas supply to the generating units operated by South Jamaica Power Company (SJPC).

JPS said the power supply was restored to most customers within half an hour and that all customers affected by outage have now been restored.

The outage followed last Friday’s island wide blackout with the OUR indicating that stakeholders are to determine the cause of the outage, assess the adequacy of JPS’s response, and get an update on system stability.

The OUR had requested a preliminary report on Monday, 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.

It has also requested information regarding immediate corrective measures to minimise the likelihood of recurrence.

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz had officially demanded a comprehensive report and a fulsome investigation from the JPS within 24 hours to explain the cause of a major all-island blackout.

According to the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), preliminary investigations revealed that the blackout was triggered by the loss of five transmission lines. Specifically, a fault was observed on a high-voltage cable connecting the Hunt’s Bay power station to the Newport station, alongside equipment damage at the Rockfort substation