KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) says isolated sections of its grid have been affected by Tropical Storm Elsa, which is currently passing the island. 

A few trips on the grid have led to isolated outages, JPS said, adding that its “teams have been responding to these quickly, where it is safe to do so.”

Some of the areas in which isolated outages have occurred are in the parishes of Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, St Mary and Clarendon, the light and power company said.

According to the company, it has fully restored service in Freeport, Montego Bay, after a major outage. However, its crews are being hampered by weather conditions from restoring service in Phoenix Park in St Catherine and the Frontier Housing Scheme in St Mary.

A team is also presently on site working to restore the Clarendon communities of Ballards River, Brae Hill, Red Hills and Beckford District, the company said.

Meanwhile, JPS has sought to assure customers that it has no plans to shut down the grid.  The assurance comes in the wake of a message being circulated via whatsapp that the company may ‘pull the plug’ if weather conditions worsen.  

“The company wishes to make it clear that it is monitoring the situation and there is presently no significant threat to the grid infrastructure that would warrant such action,” said JPS.

JPS said it wishes to remind customers that once the storm has passed, its teams will first need to conduct a detailed damage assessment and carry out repairs, before power supply can be restored to some areas. 

The company asks for patience, “as the damage assessment is essential to ensuring the efficient and safe restoration of power to customers.”