THE OFFICE of Utilities Regulation (OUR) said yesterday that it would ask the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) to delay by a few months the implementation of a new policy requiring some of its biggest customers to own transformers or, alternatively, pay a higher energy rate.
JPS had reportedly sent out letters to its Rate 50 customers informing them that in accordance with the provisions of the new tariff, which came into effect June 1, 2004, they would now have to own the transformers or be reclassified to Rate 40 and pay a higher energy rate.
INVOICES RECEIVED
However, JPS customers are querying the invoices received from the utility company, noting that in some cases they are being asked to pay in excess of $500,000 for a piece of equipment that is more than 20 years old.
According to the lobby group, the letter from JPS did not give them sufficient time to analyse the pros and cons of committing such large sums of money.
TARIFF
JPS customers have asked OUR's Director General, J. Paul Morgan and deputy director general with responsibility for electricity, Raymond Silvera, to have JPS suspend this aspect of the tariff.
The JPS letter to its Rate 50 customers had reportedly indicated that they had until the middle of November to purchase the transformers.
"We aim to have the matter sorted out within two months or more," Raymond Silvera, OUR deputy director general told The Gleaner yesterday.
