THE Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) was yesterday able to satisfy full electricity demands, after returning to service the second of three generators that went down last week at its Old Harbour Bay Power Plant.

“For this week, we are not expecting a recurrence of the levels of load-shedding we had last week,” Winsome Callum, the JPSCo’s corporate communication manager told the Observer yesterday.

The company was last week forced to institute load-shedding across the island after the three Old Harbour Bay units developed technical problems and left the light and power company 100 megawatts short on its generating capacity. By Friday night, however, the company was able to return one of the affected units back into service, reducing the shortfall by 60 megawatts of the average peak demand of 550 megawatts.

Load-shedding, however, affected sections of the island on Saturday, but the return of the second unit allowed the company to suspend load-shedding.

“As a result of the repairs, we did not need to engage in load-shedding today (yesterday) as we have enough capacity to meet the demand,” Callum said.

She was unable to say whether load-shedding would continue this week, but suggested it would be nowhere near the levels experienced last week.

At the same time, however, Callum explained that the one malfunctioning unit at Old Harbour Bay would not necessarily mean that the company would be unable to satisfy peak demand, as units sometimes have to be taken out of service for repairs and maintenance.

Phillip Paulwell, the commerce, science and technology minister, told Parliament last week that JPSCo customers were enjoying more consistent reliable electricity service during 2002, relative to the previous year, as the utility company completed Phase One of its generation expansion programme.

The improved reliability, he said, was due primarily to the completion of the first phase of the 120-megawatt combined generating plant at the Bogue Power Station in Montego Bay. In September last year, the JPSCo officially commissioned into service two 40-megawatt units, adding 80 megawatts to the grid.

In addition, work is now progressing on the second phase of the JPSCo combined cycle

project. This phase will couple two heat-recovery steam generators to the turbines to produce another 40 megawatts of power from the exhaust gas of the turbines, bringing the total from the plant to 120 megawatts.

On the completion of this project, the JPSCo generating capacity will reach 780 megawatts to serve a projected peak load demand of 610 megawatts. This, Paulwell said, would leave the light and power company with a reserve margin of 27 per cent.

The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), has, however, maintained that expansion plans announced by the JPSCo were inadequate, adding that it was not surprised by the re-occurrence of load-shedding.

“The Government must be held accountable for not seeing to a proper assessment of the JPSCo’s expansion plan. The JLP calls on Minister Paulwell to take immediate action to remedy this problem,” said the JLP’s energy spokesman, Russell Hadeed.