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JPS investigating reasons for island-wide power outage

Winsome Callum, Corporate Communications Manager, JPS, and Dr. Andrew Wheatley, Minister of Energy

An investigation is in progress to determine what triggered Sunday night's island-wide power outage in Jamaica.
   
Shortly before seven o'clock most of  the Jamaica Public Service Company's generating units went off-line simultaneously.

Winsome Callum, JPS Corporate Communications Manager,  told RJR News that power was restored to most communities during the night.

Regarding the investigation, she said the first order of business would be "for us to identify what the problem was, what caused it, and then make a determination as to whether or not this is likely to happen again and what could be done to avert a situation like this."
   
Although the outage affected all parishes, not all customers were affected.

"The power system, by nature of how it is constructed... the power does go out, as part of a protective mechanism, to protect the grid itself, because there are times when are interferences on the grid that could damage the grid," she explained.

Compensation

While asserting that the company was not expecting that the outage would have caused significant damage to customers' appliances, Callum advised that there was a formal process to be followed, if there were such instances.

"There is a procedure that our customers can go through, in terms of reporting, as quickly as possible, what would have happened to your appliances... and your report will be investigated," she said.

Energy Minister

Dr. Andrew Wheatley also told RJR News that he was expecting a report on the power outage, by Wednesday the latest.

"I don't think it was something (for which) it would be difficult to ascertain the actual cause, but I leave it up to the experts to do a proper analysis of what caused the power outage and give the ministry a full report," he said.

 



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