As pressure continues to mount on the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) to account for the noticeable increase in customers’ bills across the island, the power company late Monday evening sought to clarify why users are being asked to pay more.

But in doing so, the JPS made certain to call out the Office of Utilities Regulation, which had earlier on Monday said it was investigating the increase in electricity bills for the July to August billing period.

“This month, many customers may have seen a rise in their electricity bills for consumption during the July to August billing period, despite consistent usage compared to previous months,” the JPS said in a release.

“The main components which cause customers’ bills to either go up or down include energy charges set by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR),” the release stated before citing the other factors: “the amount of electricity that customers use and additional components including the fuel charge and the billing exchange rate which may change monthly”.

The JPS release further added: The recent increase is primarily due to a higher fuel charge, and to a much lesser extent, a higher billing exchange rate.

The JPS explains that:

• The fuel charge on August bills is $32.172 per kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to the fuel charge of $24.335 on July bills.
• The billing exchange rate on bills moved from $156.30:1 in July, to $157.53:1 in August

According to the power company, the fuel charge that customers see on their bills is heavily influenced by the actual costs associated with purchasing the fuel used to generate electricity for the period.

“As a precautionary measure against potential hurricane damage, New Fortress Energy – the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) supplier, had to take the gas facility offline just before the [Hurricane Beryl], to protect it from damage,” the JPS sought to explain.

“The switch of dependent generating plants from LNG to the significantly more expensive fuel, automotive diesel oil to generate electricity for some days, resulted in higher associated costs reflected in customers’ bills.”

The JPS has faced mounting public pressure, including from the government to explain itself regarding the high bills even as it faced backlash over parts of St Elizabeth still being in the dark following the passage of Beryl on July 3.

The Opposition People’s National Party commenting on the latest outrage, called on the JPS to withdraw asking customers to pay the questionable light bills.