The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is reporting revenues of more than US$1 billion in 2022, as demand recovered from the COVID-19 slump at a time when electricity prices reached the highest they had been for more than a decade.

“Operating revenues for the group was US$1,163 million, which represented a 20 per cent or US$190-million increase over the previous year with the greatest contributor being electricity revenues which increased by US$190 million,” the JPS said in its annual report. Profits last year was US$54 million up 28 per cent from a year earlier.

It said as the country continued its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, electricity sales rose 3 per cent in 2022. The increased demand was still 3 per cent below the pre-COVID year of 2019, but a welcome improvement nonetheless, the JPS said.

That came as the cost of a kilowatt of electricity reached 40 US cents in 2022, up 17.6 per cent, as the war in Ukraine sent fuel prices spiralling worldwide.

“This in turn fed into markedly higher electricity tariff for our customers, further increasing the theft of electricity, payment delinquency, and the incentive for large commercial customers to consider defecting from the grid and supplying their own electricity. The war also threatened the availability of goods and services needed to operate, maintain and upgrade the equipment that produces and supplies electricity.”

That aside, the JPS which is now celebrating 100 years, marked some milestones during 2022.

Its MyJPS mobile app which was introduced in 2020 to allow customers to track energy usage, make and track reports, check balances and pay bills, now has more than 420,000 customers registered “with a significant percentage being from the older demographics”, the JPS said.

It also said its service standards have improved with 64 per cent of its residential customers expressing satisfaction with the company versus the 60 per cent who were satisfied the prior year. Among commercial and industrial customers, the satisfaction level was much higher at 74 per cent in 2022, compared to 69 per cent in 2021.