Improved Power Supply for Port Maria, Highgate & Guy’s Hill by December

September 20, 2021

Port Maria, Highgate and Guys Hill are among several communities in St. Catherine, St. Mary and St. Ann identified by JPS to benefit from improved power supply by the end of the year. These communities are currently being focused on by the Company through its Voltage Standardization Programme (VSP). Other communities served by the same JPS electrical circuits and set to benefit include: Carron Hall, Windsor Castle, Woodside, Palmetto Grove, Gloucester Hall, Richmond, Robbins Bay, Belfield, Kiloncholy, Flint River and Rock River.

With this programme, JPS has been strengthening the electricity grid by upgrading transformers, updating poles and other related hardware equipment to current industry standards, intensifying vegetation control activities and doing other vital work on its infrastructure. The resulting improvement allows for fewer customers to be affected by outages and improved voltage quality.

Twelve (12) of the Company’s major sections of the network in Kingston, Trelawny, St Ann and St. Mary have been upgraded under the VSP since 2016. “We began to see positive results from early on with, as an example, a 48% reduction in the frequency of outages for 2019 compared to 2017 for areas such as Ocho Rios, Shaw Park, Great Pond, Eltham and White River in St. Ann. With the ongoing islandwide Voltage Standardization Programme, these results are expected to be replicated across the country,” said Blaine Jarret, Senior Vice-President for Energy Delivery at JPS.

JPS has advised that this work will occasionally require planned outages. These are advertised in advance so customers can be adequately notified and prepared. This is a continuation of JPS’ investment in the national grid, which has seen the company investing approximately US$460M, over the past 5 years, in significantly improving grid infrastructure.

Other areas targeted this year for improvement, include sections of the grid serving Michelton Halt, Monymusk, Rhodens Pen and surroundings.