JPS to submit report to the OUR today on Friday’s islandwide blackout

The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) is to submit a report to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) today on Friday’s islandwide blackout.

Thousands of JPS customers were left in the dark for hours on Friday night due to the incident.

Full power was restored on Saturday, with JPS noting that it is investigating the cause of the blackout.

In a video update on the weekend, President and Chief Executive Officer of JPS, Hugh Grant, noted that significant lightning activity was recorded in the corporate area, around the time of the disruption, particularly in the vicinity of several major generating stations, transmission facilities and substations.

The OUR said the report submitted by JPS should include the sequence of events, contributing factors, and the nature and impact of the outage on the generation, transmission, and distribution systems, as well as on its supply to customers.

OUR Director General, Ansord Hewitt, said the JPS is also to submit information regarding immediate corrective measures to minimise the likelihood of recurrence.

He said this will be a precursor to the more detailed report, which JPS is obliged to provide to the OUR within 30 days of the restoration of power.

He said the report will determine what actions are to be taken.