ST ANDREW, Jamaica — Residents of Grants Pen in St Andrew are said to be benefitting from upgrades from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

According to a release on Thursday, infrastructure upgrades in the area will see over 700 existing customers being transferred to the newly installed Residential Advanced Metering Infrastructure (RAMI) system.

The electrical infrastructure development work in Grants Pen started in March 2021, under the JPS Community Renewal programme, to provide safer and more reliable electricity supply to the community. It was also initiated to encourage regularisation by bringing more people onto the grid legally. In addition to the infrastructure improvements, JPS has been engaging residents and facilitating the sign-up of new customers.

“It’s very important to JPS that users of electricity are safe and have access to reliable supply. The upgrade of our infrastructure in Grants Pen will help us to achieve these targets while increasing the number of legal customers on the grid,” said Rasheed Anderson, director of Revenue Security at JPS.

JPS is investing over J$56M in its capital infrastructure in the community, improving its systems while adding to the legal paying customer pool. The recent cutover to the new system is also tackling the 61 per cent theft level in Grants Pen. With the new system, existing illegal connections were removed and the ability to illegally connect to the network has been severely limited.

Similar upgrade work has been going on in Barrett Hall, Tower Hill, August Town Phase 2 and Granville – the most recent communities where similar electrical system upgrades and social intervention have begun.

The JPS Community Renewal Programme, which was established in 2014, has been successful in converting thousands of households to legitimate electricity usage in communities in Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and St James.