Durrant Pate/Contributor

Over J$51 million in compensation is due to utility customers between July and September 2023, as a result of guaranteed standards breaches by the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) and the National Water Commission (NWC).

This information is contained in the latest quarterly performance report recently published by the Office of Utilities Regulation’s (OUR) Consumer Affairs Unit, which spans the 2023 July-September quarter.

JPS’s compliance report on its GS performance for the review period indicated that 18,453 breaches were committed, representing a 12 per cent decrease when compared with the preceding period. These breaches attracted compensatory payments of approximately J$41.6 million, all of which were applied automatically to the affected customers’ accounts. 

Estimate bill breaches

Guaranteed standards related to estimated bills (which restricts JPS from sending more than two consecutive estimates without a penalty), reconnection (which requires that JPS restores supply within 24 hours of payment of overdue amounts) and connection to supply (which prescribes the time within which JPS is to make a simple connection) continued to account for the most frequent GS breaches. These Standards accounted for 99 per cent of breaches and 98 per cent of compensatory payments.

The NWC’s guaranteed standards compliance report for the review period indicates that 2,151 breaches were committed during the review period, representing a 20 per cent increase when compared with the preceding period. These breaches had a potential payout of approximately J$9.52 million while actual payments amounted to approximately J$3.56 million, or 37 per cent of total potential payments, and were made by way of automatic credits to the affected accounts. 

The remaining 63 per cent of potential payments not made included those breaches for which the required claim forms were not submitted by the affected customers for validation. The OUR continues to encourage customers to be vigilant in holding their utility providers accountable for basic service standards. 

Nature of complaints to the OUR

During the 2023 July-September period, the OUR received 844 contacts. This is a 29 per cent increase over the prior period. The most significant increases were in the categories of disconnection (increasing from nine complaints in the prior quarter to 33), service interruption (from 96 complaints to 152), poor service quality (an increase from 21 to 30 complaints) and irregular supply (an increase from 25 complaints to 32. 

JPS accounted for 41 per cent of the contacts followed by the NWC with 32 per cent and Flow at 19 per cent. Digicel Jamaica, small-scale service providers and non-utility related matters made up the remaining eight per cent.