MIAMI, Florida — The Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd is not slackening on the theft of electricity, but has taken on a more polished approach in its bid to reduce losses that have stymied the organisation over the years, its President and Chief Executive Officer has said.

“We are not slackening. This year has been about diversity, and we didn’t do a lot of campaigning but clearly it’s still a problem,” said Kelly Tomblin, while speaking to the Jamaica Observer at a meeting of American Chamber of Commerce executives here recently.

“The reason we probably have given it a media break is because after we cut off a neighbourhood and we had a seize-and-desist order, we started a partnership with the Government. I have a vice-president that handles that, and I have a technology group that doesn’t do anything but work on electricity theft.

“We promised that we would get stricter laws which we now have… imprisonment for five years… all of that for electricity theft. But we also agreed that we would work with the Government to set up some community solutions. So we picked 10 communities and we are working really hard now and we have gone in with prepaid meters and say we know that people cannot pay or have never paid a monthly bill, they just can’t. They may be able to pay a daily bill and that’s what prepaid meters do.

“So we go into these communities and right now we are seeing different areas of success – I will give you one success story – Julian Robinson’s McGregor Gully (South East St Andrew) where we are seeing great success. We don’t have anti-theft meters, we have normal pre-paid meters, people are buying credit. Once we get people excited and proud of paying for their bills, and understanding that they are not stealing from JPS, they are not stealing from their neighbour, this is a misnomer in people’s heads. If you are stealing from the JPS or the Government or whoever you think you are stealing from, you are stealing from your neighbour,” Tomblin stated.

The United States citizen, who, among other things has a journalism degree, said that the JPSco has been involved in a rapid programme of replacing utility poles daily, changing out lights in public spaces regularly, while basking in the reality of falling oil prices on the world market, despite the US$22- million loss suffered last year in fuel theft, and expressing relief that had oil prices headed north, it would have “killed” the JPSCo.

Tomblin said that for the organisation, it was critical that what she considered, the “real utility issues” are discussed, such as diversity, making sure that gas is readily available, having renewables and not letting prices go up.

“We need to talk about the grid, don’t let it fall down, how do we replace poles, how do we keep the grid going? We haven’t had blackouts… that’s what utilities normally talk about, but because we always talk about theft of service that’s what we still talk about, and I thought that my team was getting a little off track because what you want me to do is provide you with cheap energy, provide you with energy that doesn’t result in blackouts, getting new ways to do business with me. Right now we have many followers on Facebook, Twitter, you can web chat with me, we have reality shows, energy clubs, and we need to refocus on the utility business. Yes we are going to come back to theft, but I want to get our foundation really solid,” Tomblin said.

Last year, she said, the JPSCo’s power plants ran better than they have ever done, despite the fact that they are old.

“We didn’t have many power outages last year because we are focused on our business of generating power, delivering to our customers, being nice to our customers. I am really proud that we have cut our disconnections in half because we are starting to incense our contractors to say if you are in doubt, if the customers say that they have paid, give them the benefit of the doubt even if you don’t have evidence. So my job and my dream is to eliminate disconnections. We are really here to generate cheap power, keep the lights on, come up with creative customer solutions like mobile money, mobile apps, and prepaid meters,” she said.

At one point, the JPSCo was losing over US$100 million a year to electricity theft. However, that number has fallen significantly over the past year, not due in the main to a reduction in throw ups (illegal connections), but because of the fall in oil prices supplied to the world by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries group.

“I am embarrassed when I bring foreign direct investors in and they see those cobwebs (illegal powerlines) but we let it go on, because even if we don’t want to, we don’t have places to put 100,000 people in jail. What are we going to do with them even if we do arrest them?

“We have to come up with funding for the real vulnerable who cannot afford it, like we do in every other country. In New York City if you cannot pay your energy bill you can go to various places to get help. You have welfare if you are dead broke, or vulnerable or handicapped. So we have to deal with fundamental problems. We don’t have a fund for the vulnerable and we don’t have enough jails to put everybody who steals, so we are working on it, and I am so proud of Minister Robinson’s McGregor Gully, it gave me hope because I was beginning to get so depressed that maybe there’s nothing we can do. Minister Robinson has really shown some courage because he went out and told his constituents not to steal and that takes a lot of courage and political will and we are proud of that,” the AMCHAM vice- president said.

Regarded in circles as a brave woman for taking some of the decisions that she has, and standing up to corruption, Tomblin said that despite some challenges, her love of the Jamaican people remained intact.

“I am very faithful, and people in Jamaica have been really nice to me, even when they are mad, even though they call me the wicked white woman, they have been good to me. Jamaica has been my home for four years. I think people know that you are doing your best…it’s not perfect but you are doing your best,” Tomblin said.