The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has indicated its intention to increase scrutiny of the Jamaica Public Service's (JPS) maintenance practices in light of the all-island power outage which took place last week Wednesday.

In a statement issued yesterday by the OUR, it said that for the remainder of the year this would be one of the major focus areas of its office as it seeks to prevent a recurrence of what was the third occurrence in 19 months.

"Of concern to the office are the maintenance practices of the company," the statement said, "particularly whether the required procedures are in place and are being observed and the status of JPS's compliance with Condition 9 of its license; which speaks to the engagement of trained personnel.

The OUR also highlighted "the level of compliance with required and scheduled maintenance and the practice with regard to replacing outdated equipment and structural items".

Enquiry panel

The utilities regulator has also set up an enquiry panel to examine the circumstances of the January 9 outage and to ascertain the status of JPS's compliance with all directives from the office with respect to the previous shutdowns.

Former OUR Director General and engineer, Winston C. Hay, will chair the panel which includes relay and system protection expert Peter Broven, as well as OUR engineers Duane Rowe and Courtney Francis.

Additionally, a group of experts led by Mr. Broven will be engaged to specifically study JPS's system design, stability issues, protective relaying system design and relay coordination issues relative to their implications for system reliability and performance.

Based on the enquiry panel's recommendations, the office will issue further directives as necessary to JPS.

The panel's final report is expected by April 15.