KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) has submitted an action plan to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) outlining its strategy to address the problems which caused the widespread power outage last April.

JPS reported that on Sunday April 17, 547,734 customers were affected by the outage which was caused by a major system failure and that service was progressively restored.

The OUR in a news release said that the submission of the action plan follows several directives and recommendations they issued to the JPS last November, as to how it can improve its systems and prevent such future occurrences.

The OUR said it had also instructed JPS to provide it with an action plan on the implementation of all of its recommendations, which should include specific time frames for their completion and associated implementation costs.

In its report sent to the OUR in January 2017, JPS outlined its responses to the OUR’s recommendations and its action plan. These include systems and training that will be put in place to ensure that all major transmission maintenance outages are properly planned and coordinated to reduce the system exposure to security risks; training of its relevant staff including managers on outage management; increasing complement and improving competence of protection system staff; and implementing a system for upgrading, maintaining, testing and management of critical equipment.

JPS also outlined a schedule for implementing each corrective measure, indicating the costs and constraints where applicable.

The OUR said it will be monitoring the implementation of the corrective measures to ensure the problems identified are addressed in a timely and effective manner, thereby reducing the probability of a recurrence.