MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The Villa Road home of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) in Mandeville recently became the second JPS location to have an eStore dedicated to energy efficiency.

Customers now have the opportunity to buy energy-saving and related items such as the LED (light-emitting diode) light bulbs, digital energy timers, energy monitors, switch timers and refrigerator guards even as they visit the office to pay bills.

Staff at the eStore will also be providing energy-saving advice to customers, JPS executives say.

Garth McKenzie, director of sales and marketing at JPS, said that by March 2014 the aim is to have 10 eStores. The first such store was opened at Ruthven Road in Kingston in April.

“We are not here to push a brand; we are not here to push a technology. We are here to help you to be empowered. It is really about energy efficiency,” McKenzie said.

He argued that the “gap” at JPS is that customers do not believe that they are getting value for what they are paying and the company’s job is to make the users of the service feel happy about what they now pay and what they will pay in the future.

“We have to be more proactive in the relationships that we have with our customers because it is not unforeseeable that we could end up with no customers,” said McKenzie.

“Our job in sales and marketing is to never lose a customer. Explaining why you have a problem is not enough. Our customers expect us to give them advice. We decided… to step out and really try to deliver what our customers want,” he added.

Gary Barrow, senior vice-president of customer operations and support services who described himself as “a child of Mandeville” — being a past student of DeCarteret College and Manchester High — said the eStores represent the beginning of a revolution which he believes his company will continue

to lead.

“Jamaica is a place with many ideas… The problem I find with Jamaica is that conversion, that execution…One of the big impediments (in the energy sector) is the price of fuel. Recently JPS revisited our vision statement; we redrafted it to take into account what are the current circumstances of Jamaica and the new role we would like to see ourselves play towards unleashing the growth and prosperity of Jamaica,” said Barrow.

“The biggest cry we get from our customers is the price of electricity. We (Jamaica) spend US$2.2 billion on fuel per year, almost 15 per cent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product)… the irony of it is that we have such an abundance of renewable energy,” he said.

Director of Region South Keith Garvey claimed that with the support of the Mandeville community, JPS’ customers will see their electricity bill falling over time.

“We see you as our partners, we don’t see you just as our customers,” he said.

On October 29, the JPS also launched at its Ruthven Road office in Kingston, its SolarMill — a hybrid wind and solar power generator — as part of the drive for energy solutions.