JPS business and residential customers question sharp increase in August bill
Small business owners and residential customers have condemned the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) for the sharp increase in their electricity bill at a time when the country is still recovering from Hurricane Beryl and parents are preparing for back-to-school.
Customers have taken to social media to complain of the increase in their July-August bills, despite the fact that many households experienced long periods of non-usage of electricity following the passage of the hurricane in July
The Small Business Association of Jamaica (SBAJ) lamented the decision to increase by 30 per cent or more the charges to consumers and business owners. The Association has taken issue with the fact that fuel charges for its clients have moved from $24.335 per kilowatt in the July billing period to $32.172 per kilowatt for the August billing period.
“I am outraged that JPSCo has established a US$50 million cash trove in self insurance disaster recovery fund at its disposal, yet JPSCo has appeared
to transfer to the unsuspecting Jamaican public the cost of the recently passed Hurricane Beryl. We are demanding an explanation and an immediate roll back of the charges that are clearly unfounded. Further, the time has come, when the government should give a new license to a different public service company to provide competition in the industry,” SBAJ president Garnett Reid said in a media release.
The JPS had assured customers last month, that they would not be expected to pay additional charges for the massive damage to the company’s infrastructure following Beryl’s passage. This is because the utility company had accessed a US$50-million insurance-type fund to assist in the recovery efforts.
The JPS in response to the concerns, noted some of the factors that contributed to the rise in electricity bills for the July to August period.
“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 amount of electricity that customers use and additional components including the fuel charge and the billing exchange rate, which may change monthly,” the utility company explained.
It said the recent increase is primarily due to a higher fuel charge from $24.335 on July bills to $32.172 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the August bill. To a much lesser extent, a higher billing exchange rate is also to be blamed for the jump in the August bill. The billing exchange rate on bills moved from $156.30:1 in July, to $157.53:1 in August.
Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications, Dayl Vaz has called for the JPS billing practices to be investigated, while the call has come from several sectors for the light and power company to withdraw all recently issued bills.