Energy Minister Daryl Vaz says his ministry is working with local officials to guide the restoration of electricity in priority areas, particularly for the Christmas season.

He said that the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) has given the commitment to restore power in the major town centres in all parishes by Christmas and the New Year.

“It means all of those townships that do not have electricity now will have electricity by that time, and that will be huge in terms of the effect for [the holiday season],” he said, while addressing a December 10 post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

Minister Vaz informed that an additional 300 linesmen, along with specialised equipment, have been mobilised, which will accelerate the restoration efforts, particularly in the worst-affected parishes.

“JPS, as of right now, is at 82 per cent. We are planning to move to 90 per cent over Christmas and New Year and 100 per cent by end of January, early February,” he said.

Minister Vaz noted that the linesmen are expected to begin arriving as early as this past weekend, while the equipment is expected to dock sometime late next week for work to begin immediately.

“These line workers will be allocated to parishes with catastrophic damage, such as Westmoreland, to accelerate the redesign and rebuild efforts. We have already provided power to Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, the town of Savanna-la-Mar, Negril and surrounding communities as we continue to expand our rebuild efforts in Westmoreland,” he said.

“We are making arrangements for special accommodation and staging areas for equipment and material in parishes such as Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth to optimise logistics and efficiencies for the rebuild/restoration efforts,” he added.