The Consumer Affairs Unit of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) secured over $13 million for utility customers through its interventions in the first nine months of 2025.

According to the latest OUR Quarterly Performance Report for the 2025 July -September period,

The unit secured $3,130.407.89 in the third quarter. This follows $6,276,245.90 in the January–March quarter and $4,311,729.09 in the second quarter.

For the period, the National Water Commission (NWC) accounted for the bulk, amounting to $2.3 million or 72 per cent of funds secured. The Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) paid out the second highest of approximately $431,000, while Digicel accounted for the remaining amount.

Approximately $833,000 of the third-quarter amounts were applied to customers’ accounts by the service providers in previous periods.

Guaranteed Standards payouts

In the third quarter, JPS and NWC paid out over $58 million to their customers for breaches of the Guaranteed Standards (GS).

JPS’s compliance report on its GS performance indicated that there were 22,963 breaches, representing a 1 per cent increase over the previous quarter. These breaches resulted in compensatory payments of approximately $50.5 million, which were automatically applied to the affected customers’ accounts.

The NWC’s Guaranteed Standards compliance report for the review period shows that 3,197 breaches were committed, representing a 13 per cent decrease over the preceding period. These breaches had a potential payout of approximately $15.6 million; however, actual payments were around $8.2 million or 53 per cent of the total potential payments.

The remaining 47 per cent of potential payments not made include those breaches for which the affected customers did not submit the required claim forms for validation. Payments for GS breaches are applied as credits to the affected accounts.

Customer contact trends

During the July-September 2025 period, there was a 22 per cent decline in the number of utility customers contacting the OUR, moving from 944 in the prior period to 734 contacts. Billing matters remained the main reason utility consumers contacted the OUR’s Consumer Affairs Unit.