Probe Into Island-wide Power Outage In Jamaica Completed

KINGSTON, Jamaica, November 17, 2016 (CMC) – The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has attributed the island-wide power outage that occurred earlier this year, to the “lack of situation awareness on the part of the light and power company – the Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

The regulatory body that completed its probe into the April 17 outage also said there was insufficient risk assessment carried out by the utility company, and has issued 16 directives to the JPS to help improve its systems and prevent future occurrences.

The JPS is now expected to provide an action plan on the implementation of the recommendations.

The OUR says the JPS needs to take immediate action to correct the direct cause of the outage and provide the utilities regulator with evidence that specific actions were taken to fix the problems identified.

It was also recommended that the JPS should plan all major transmission outages and coordinate and reduce the system’s exposure to undue security risks.

It has also been suggested that the JPS should engage independent consultants to conduct a detailed review of its outage management systems.

Concerning another island-wide blackout that occurred in August, the OUR said that it has completed its interim report into that outage and the findings will be released to the public next week.

Meanwhile two employees are facing dismissal in relation to that outage. The employees have been charged with willful negligence and recklessness.

The JPS has claimed that human error caused the August island-wide outage.