JAMAICA Public Service Company (JPS) customers have been hit with an almost one per cent increase in their bills since last year to cover electricity illegally extracted from the company.
Last year JPS lost just over US$28 million ($4.3 billion) through electricity theft.
This pushed the amount paid by legitimate customers to cover electricity theft from 17 per cent to 17.91 per cent.
This was revealed on Tuesday by minister with responsibility for electricity Daryl Vaz, who admitted that the illegal extraction of power from JPS was on the increase.
Vaz was responding to questions from his Opposition counterpart Phillip Paulwell during the sitting of the House of Representatives.
Asked to state the total amount of technical and non-technical losses experienced by JPS, Vaz said, “In the documentation provided by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), it was outlined that in 2023 the Jamaica Public Service Company experienced technical losses amounting to 7.67 per cent and non-technical losses of 17.91 per cent.”
Non-technical losses are those related to electricity theft and the JPS licence allows the company to recoup this from its paying customers.
When asked to state the dollar value and percentage of electricity that is stolen from the JPS distribution system, Vaz again turned to documentation provided by the OUR for 2023
“The dollar value of electricity stolen from the JPS distribution system was US$28,197,648.00, representing 19.82 per cent of the total electricity distributed,” said Vaz as he noted that technical and non-technical losses by JPS are paid for by its paying customers.
Vaz pointed out that these costs are reflected as part of customers’ electricity billing cycle under technical and non-technical losses.
