JAMAICA Public Service (JPS) customers, already hit hard with high electricity bills, will be faced with even higher light bills when a 9.6 per cent increase is reflected on bills this monthend.

The announcement yesterday of the electricity increase by the light and power company came amid heightened frustration among the company’s almost half a million customers who have consistently criticised the company’s billing system.

The increase will be an addition to the three per cent inflation rate adjustment that applies to the non-fuel portion of the bill that was granted by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) last year. The rate will be applied for the first time this month.

Electricity bills are expected go even higher next month when customers begin to pay an additional seven cents per kilowatt hour to pay for damage to the company’s generation and distribution system caused by Hurricane Ivan last year September.

Yesterday, the company said the latest increase was a combination of hikes in fuel and Independent Power Producers’ (IPP) charge as well as the billing exchange rate.

“The fuel rate applied to customers’ bills accounts for the major portion of the IPP charge,” the JPS said in a statement. “This charge changes each month, depending on how much JPS has to pay for the fuel it buys to generate electricity and the IPP costs incurred each period.”

According to the light and power company, the latest increase translates into approximately $1.00 per kilowatt-hour for electricity.

“The fuel and IPP charge on bills customers will receive September is $8.131 per kilowatt hour, compared to the $7.092 per kilowatt hour charge for bills received during August 2005,” the company said.

“The combined impact of the increase in fuel and IPP charges, along with the inflation adjustment, will result in a typical residential customer, who uses 250 kilowatt hours monthly, paying approximately $340 more for electricity this month than he or she paid last month,” said the JPS.

The JPS has been embroiled in controversy over fluctuations in electricity bills over recent months with the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) calling for a probe into its operations two weeks ago, claiming that the company was being relied upon to assist its parent company, Mirant, out of debt. The call was followed by an islandwide protest by the party’s supporters.

Late last month, the OUR ordered an assessment of the company’s billing system, and indicated that it would use independent auditors to carry out the process.

The move, the OUR said then, was intended to restore customer confidence in the billing system as customers had consistently questioned its integrity, particularly the accuracy of the light and power company’s meters.

Yesterday, opposition spokesman on energy, Clive Mullings, described yesterday’s announcement as “unfortunate”, saying it served only to reinforce the need for a probe into its billing system.

“They say the increase incorporates the escalation in fuel prices and inflation adjustment but we need to ensure that the billing is correct,” Mullings told the Observer.