KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is reporting that utility customers have benefited from over $37 million in pay out for breaches of the Guaranteed Standards over the last quarter by the National Water Commission (NWC) and Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

The JPS compliance report on its Guaranteed Standards’ performance indicated that 17,634 breaches were committed, representing a three per cent decline compared to the preceding quarter, the OUR said.

These breaches attracted compensation of $34.95 million, which was made through automatic compensation.

Meanwhile, the NWC compliance report on the Guaranteed Standards scheme showed there were 550 breaches representing a 13 per cent decrease over the last quarter. These breaches had a potential pay-out of $1.75 million while actual payments amounted to $1.16 million, which were made by way of automatic credits to the affected accounts, the OUR reported.

The OUR said that the standards with the highest incidence of breaches for the NWC were ‘meter repair/replacement’, which requires that meter repairs or replacements must be completed within 20 working days after a defect is identified or reported, and ‘access’, which requires that new service connections are made within 10 working days of payment.