Dear Editor,

In the month of January 2015 I experienced a voltage spike in my business. The spike caused damage to several of my equipment and refrigerators. I filed a complaint with the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) claims office, but I was told that they were not at fault because customers are required to have protectors on all equipment and that the voltage spike was something that they could not foresee.

After this, I took my complaint to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), citing that I indeed had protectors on all my equipment and JPS was conducting work in the area, hence the voltage spike was unavoidable. Also, I expressed that other community members experienced that same spike, and this was not the only case where such a spike has occurred.

Subsequently, OUR supported JPS’s claims and I had to re-submit a new claim to which I am still waiting on a response.

Who does the OUR protect? I thought it was the taxpayers.

Nickell Rowe

nickellrowe@hotmail.com