PHILLIP Paulwell, the energy minister, yesterday summoned representatives of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) and the Jamaica Private Power Company (JPPC) to an emergency meeting at his office in Kingston, following another round of power cuts yesterday.

Residents of four parishes – Kingston and St Andrew, Westmoreland and Portland – were left without electricity for hours, as the JPS carried out load shedding because of what it said were significant shortfalls in generation output due to the loss of units by its independent power provider and scheduled maintenance of its own plants.

Yesterday’s power cuts came closely on the heels of last month’s islandwide blackout and subsequent load shedding

However, the JPS and its independent provider assured the minister that normality would be restored to the affected areas by 7:00 last night.

Paulwell, according to a statement from his ministry last night, told the electricity providers to adhere strictly to their maintenance schedule, while being mindful of the disruptive nature of unscheduled outages.

The minister, said the statement, also instructed the JPS to revisit the Generator Assistance Programme which was in use in 2001.

“Under the programme, large commercial entities would supply their own demand in order to temporarily avert a system overload. This approach has been a feature in a number of developing and industrialised countries alike as an emergency measure in the event of low reserve margin,” said the statement.

The minister also told the JPS and its independent provider to give the ministry a full twice-daily gross plant capability report, which would detail the adequacy of the company’s generating capacity to meet system demand islandwide.

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) also requested a report, in 24 hours, from the company outlining the reason behind the latest round of power cuts.

“.We have noted with extreme concern the increased frequency of these outages,” David Geddes, the OUR’s director of consumer and public affairs, told the Observer.

He said the OUR had also requested a report on the generating capacity of all the power providers’ generating units.

“We also ask that they give us a detailed report on the generating capacity of the major independent power producer and that this situational report specify what units are on or which ones are off,” Geddes said last night.

He said the OUR was expecting to get the report before the close of business today and, depending on its content, the OUR will decide its next move.

“If it is a shortfall in generating capacity there is nothing that you can really direct them to do at this point, you really just have to address the generating concerns itself,” Geddes said.

At a meeting with the energy minister last month, the company was said to have assured Paulwell that its capital budget for the generation division for January to May was $1.04 billion, while the transmission and distribution budget was $2 billion. Of this amount, $950 billion was said to be budgeted for improving system reliability.

Meanwhile, Marubeni Caribbean Power Holdings Inc, which will be acquiring the JPS from Mirant, said yesterday that Damian Obiglio, president and chief executive officer of JPS, would remain in place after the sale transaction is finalised.

“We wish to state that during the due diligence process involved in the sale of Mirant’s Caribbean business, close examination was made of JPS’s current senior management team,” the release said.

“With the exception of the voluntary retirement of some senior managers, we wish to announce there will be no immediate management changes at JPS,” said the Marubeni statement.