The JPS two-year promise

HEART TO HEART

Betty Ann Blaine

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Dear Reader,

The saying we all know so well, "a promise is a comfort to a fool", is strikingly apropos as we ponder the so-called good news from the Jamaica Public Service.

At a press conference last week by the light and power company, the announcement was made that the people of Jamaica would have to wait another two years to see lower electricity bills. Two years, wow! The news brought to my mind yet another saying that "there is many a slip between the cup and the lip". It's simply bombastic the things that can happen within the space of two years!

I wasn't the only person sceptical about the two-year wait. I was in a public place when I overheard a woman remark, " It look like JPS take wi fi fool. Mi no even know if mi a go live fi si two more years."

If Jamaicans are cynical about the two-year promise, it is understandable. In fact, if they are outright disbelievers, that too is highly understandable. As long as I can remember, Jamaican consumers have been on the receiving end of increasingly higher and higher electricity bills, with no relief, and with few advocates. Their cries have more or less fallen on deaf ears, and rather than getting help, we have been fed a steady diet of "hype" - one glossy public relations stunt after another.

According to the JPS, the two to three-year protracted period will involve the construction of a new power plant in Old Harbour Bay. We are told that the proposed plant will have the capacity of 360 megawatts, and will reduce the cost of electricity by between 32 and 40 per cent.

The JPS says that the objective of the new plant is four-fold. It will:

(1) Reduce the cost of electricity

(2) Replace older units with state-of-the-art technology

(3) Protect the country from price volatility of oil

(4) Utilise an environmentally friendly fuel.

But there is a catch and the JPS has effectively backed the government into a corner. The company has made it clear that the plan is only viable if the government is decisive about the introduction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) into the mix of fuels used locally. In other words, if there is no relief for consumers after two years, blame the government, not the JPS.

If that is the JPS's argument, then quite frankly, the company is correct. It is successive governments that ought to be held accountable for the neglect and abuse of Jamaican consumers. The Jamaica Public Service Company is not the government of Jamaica, and not one single JPS customer went to the polls to vote for the light and power company. When all is said and done, it is government and those they set up to regulate the industry that are culpable. The problem is that there need to be "watchdogs" to watch the designated "watchdogs", and until more recently, none was forthcoming.

The chief financial officer Dan Theoc made it clear at the press conference that the JPS operates solely within a regulatory framework, and that a licence is a licence. In other words, they don't set the rules, they simply follow the rules that are set.

p>There is a fundamental flaw, however, and the recently established consumer advocacy group, Citizens United to Reduce Electricity has taken action on the matter. CURE is contending that the monopoly licence granted to the JPS in 2002 by the then PNP government was done contrary to the stated provision in the Electricity Act that disallows for the operation of a monopoly entity within the energy sector.

In a landmark case now before the Supreme Court, CURE is seeking judgement that will uphold the provision in both the Electricity Act and the Office of Utilities Regulation Act, essentially making the JPS licence illegal. The three defendants in the case are the JPS, the OUR and the government of Jamaica.

It cannot be overstated how crucial the matter of energy is to the current and future welfare and well-being of the Jamaican economy and by extension, the people of the country. It is the single most critical issue in determining the survival and the quality of life of our citizens. To put it bluntly, the issue of energy is a matter of life or death.

And our people are buckling under the pressure. I keep hearing stories of people who are living in darkness, not to mention the growing number of Jamaicans having to choose between sending their children to school and paying light bills. Some of those Jamaicans suffering under the pressure are the elderly living on meagre fixed incomes and the inestimable number of minimum wage earners. It is an untenable and unsustainable state of affairs.

The other vulnerable group is the small business sector. There is no way under the sun that small business people can wait two to three years for lower electricity bills. If that is the case, the country can expect to see a situation worse than Finsac. It would mean the decimation of Jamaica's entrepreneurial class.

There is a lot at stake here, including the issue of the legality of the current JPS licence. Two years, too long?

With love,

bab2609@yahoo.com

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The JPS two-year promise