With six per cent of its customers yet to receive electricity nearly two weeks after Hurricane Beryl impacted the country, the Jamaica Public Service Company is to receive help from line crews from Belize and the Cayman Islands.
The help is being facilitated through the Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (Carilec), which will be providing support services.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the announcement Tuesday during a statement in the House of Representatives.
He said the visiting line crews, who are expected in the island in the coming days, will assist the JPS in restoring power to the pockets of the country still without electricity.
The prime minister also said JPS has indicated that it has supplemented its resource pool with former employees, as well as engaging local contractors from the bauxite industry assigned to Hanover and St Elizabeth.
And, he said JPS has stated that power has now been restored to 94 per cent or approximately 655,000 of its customers.
He said power has been restored to roughly 49 per cent of customers in St Elizabeth, including sections of Black River, Junction, Alligator Pond, Santa Cruz, Siloah, Lacovia, Elderslie, and Top Hill.
“The JPS has indicated that they’re targeting the week ending August 10 for full restoration islandwide,” Holness said.
On the matter of the JPS customer base, the prime minister pointed out that St Elizabeth, the hardest-hit parish, makes up just five per cent of JPS customers.
“The customer base is highly concentrated in Kingston and St Andrew, Spanish Town, Portmore and St James. That is because of the urban nature of electricity usage,” he pointed out.
He argued that “this is not to say that there are not significant areas that are without electricity”.
Holness said power has also been restored to all major hospitals and restoration to critical National Water Commission sites is approximately 81 per cent complete as of July 16.
