THE Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) is enforcing the use of automatic compensation for all breaches of the guaranteed standard by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), effective June 2016.

For 2013, the auditor general recorded breaches by the JPS and the National Water Commission of close to $1 billion. Alarmingly, less than $105 million was paid out in compensation as most of the breaches required consumers to apply for compensation rather than the payments being automatic.

The new automatic system means that consumers will no longer be required to apply for compensation for any breach exercised by the company. Instead, the compensation will automatically be applied to the consumer’s account.

“However, consumers will have to familiarise themselves with the standards so that they can know when a breach is committed and ensure that they receive the requisite compensation,” public education specialist at the OUR, Elizabeth Bennett-Marsh, told the Jamaica Observer.

“JPS is to apply compensation for a breach of standard within one billing period of the breach occurring,” she added.

The OUR has long been searching for a way to hold utility providers responsible for breaches of the guaranteed standard which serves as a guide to the quality of service that is delivered to customers.

“With respect to standards that do not now attract automatic compensation, if a claim form is not received, then the service providers are under no obligation to pay the compensation,” Bennett-Marsh told the Business Observer. “There have been instances, however, where both the JPS and NWC have compensated customers despite not receiving a claim form, although the standard requires one.”

In a notice published to the public the OUR wrote: “The Office has determined that all breaches of the JPS’ guaranteed standards shall attract an automatic compensation by June 2016.”

“The OUR recognises that JPS may need to put the necessary systems in place to apply automatic compensation to all breaches. Accordingly, the mechanism for all standards to attract automatic compensation will be implemented on a phased basis,” the report added.

Currently, the guaranteed standard requires automatic compensation for reconnection of service within 24 hours, 20-working-day replacement of faulty meters, wrongful disconnection, and five-hour reconnection after wrongful disconnection.

The first phase, which takes effect on June 1, should see four additional standards attracting automatic compensation. This includes new and simple connections, estimation of consumption, billing adjustments and compensation.

The second phase will take effect on January 1, 2016 and will see a further four standards — connection to supply within 30 and 100 meters of the existing distribution line, connection to supply within 101 and 250 meters of the existing distribution line, first bill and transitioning of existing customers to Residential Automated Metering Infrastructure (RAMI) system updated to automatic compensation, bringing the total number of automatic compensations to 12.

“The final phase shall take effect on June 1, 2016 at which time all guaranteed standards shall attract automatic compensation,” the OUR stated.

Currently, the OUR requires a general compensation of $1,500 for breaches to residential consumers and four times the applicable service charge for commercial consumers. Wrongful disconnection and reconnection after wrongful disconnection attracts a $3,000 residential compensation from the utility provider, while commercial consumers get five times the applicable service charge.

In 2013, the Auditor General’s Department reported that JPS disclosed 282,755 instances of breaches with claimable compensation totalling $755 million, of which only $101 million was paid out. The National Water Commission also totalled 127,597 breaches with potential payout of $224 million, of which only $3.8 million was compensated.

Since then, the Auditor General report on utility providers has recommended that the OUR considers levying a penalty on the utility providers for breaches, in addition to the current payments being made to consumers. The report also urged the OUR to periodically publish details of all claimable breaches committed by the utility providers, since the current system has not achieved its intended objective.