BY STEVEN JACKSON

Business reporter

jacksons@jamaicaobserver.com

Government cannot afford its energy bill, reasoned Kelly Tomblin, president and CEO of Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), last Friday at the utility’s annual general meeting (AGM).

Tomblin’s statement follows recent reports that public schools owe $150 million for electricity. She said that JPS and the cash-strapped Ministry of Education met on Thursday to seek ways to lower the State’s bill.

“As JPS, we know a couple things; we are uniquely situated to lead the energy-efficiency revolution. What we prepared for the Government was a survey, of sorts, of how they could lower their energy bill. We do believe that the fundamental problem is that the Government cannot afford its energy bill,” Tomblin stated in response to a query from small shareholder Orette Staple, at the AGM held at the JPS headquarters in Kingston.

“So what we think the right thing to do now is to get real serious and not just talk about energy efficiency, but to get very passionate about it. We met with them as late as yesterday, and met with the minister with what we believe are conservation and energy-efficiency ideas and plans that they can adopt,” Tomblin explained

She added that JPS is also working with the local government ministry to replace regular street lights with energy-saving LED bulbs within two years.

JPS is currently applying for an overall adjustment to its rates via a tariff review afforded to it every five years. The light and power company wants its regulator, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), to incentivise energy efficiency.

“We are finding new and different ways to grow our business. We have competitive threats from renewables and perhaps energy efficiency. [But] we believe that JPS has to lead the charge on energy efficiency, and again we need a regulatory framework that doesn’t penalise us for that. We are asking the OUR to let us fulfil the national agenda of energy efficiency and renewables penetration, but we need a regulatory structure to help us do that,” she said.

In April 2011, Japan-based Marubeni Corporation entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Korea East-West Power for joint ownership of 80 per cent in the JPS. The Government of Jamaica and a small group of minority shareholders own the remaining shares.

JPS blamed theft, in part, for the reduction of its annual net profit at US$9.2 million in December 2013 from US$12.3 million a year earlier. Previously, the company told the Jamaica Observer that the police arrested more than 42 persons for the illegal abstraction of electricity between January and March 2014 .

Additionally, JPS teams have removed in excess of 26,000 ‘throw-ups’, predominantly from Kingston & St Andrew, St Catherine, and St Elizabeth. Last year, over 1,200 persons were arrested for power theft.

Power theft forms part of overall system loss which was 25.88 per cent for 2013 or US$74.5 million.

TOMBLIN… the right thing to do now is to get real serious and not just talk about energy efficiency, but to get very passionate about it