John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
THE JAMAICA Public Service Company (JPS) said the rise in fuel prices has triggered an increase in the number of people connecting illegally to its power distribution network, a scenario that is costing customers an additional $12.5 million per month.
Tom Dorsey, senior vice-president of operations at JPS, explained that "for every per cent loss, it is $25 million per month and right now (that cost) is split half with the customer and half with the
shareholders."
He noted that the number of illegal connections was expected to change when oil prices are reduced.
Mr. Dorsey said the company had removed some 20,000 illegal connections in 139 raids conducted since the start of the year. In addition, he said 39 per cent of 6,359 investigations carried out on customers accounts showed some sort of irregularity.
"That could be any sort of thing ... a tampered metre, a bypassed metre; some of which lead to an arrest, some have not," Dorsey said. He disclosed that 337 persons have been arrested so far.
The JPS vice-president said the company will be doubling the number of raids and investigations to minimise the number of illegal connections to the system.
Charles Matthews, president and chief executive officer of the JPS lamented that the company spends $100 million annually on security to protect its distribution network.
"Those dollars could be diverted to customer service. We have to get to a point where we have to spend less on security and more dollars on customer service, especially with what we've heard from our customers over the last year," Mr. Matthews said. He added: "We are having to allocate resources across to many areas that utilities in an ideal environment would not have to."
Mr. Matthews was also dismissive of suggestions that Mirant, the U.S.-based parent company was seeking to pay its debt by exploiting the Jamaican market. He described the suggestions as absurd, pointing out that JPS revenues were minuscule when compared to Mirant's US$10 billion operation. He further pointed out that JPS was the least profitable of all Mirant's operations.
The JPS president sought to lay to rest concerns that the light and power company might attempt to recover interest on the $457.5 million awarded by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) for delaying the collection date, which was slated for October 1.
