JPS says it is prepared to respond to possible outages from adverse weather
Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) says it is prepared and ready to respond to the potential impact of adverse weather conditions expected to affect the country over the next few days.
The island is currently under a tropical storm warning with an area of low pressure, according to weather authorities, potentially developing into a tropical cyclone by Monday morning.
READ: Jamaica under tropical storm warning
In a release on Sunday afternoon, JPS said it will be activating its 24-hour Adverse Weather Incident Command Operations at 4:00pm, to ensure safe and timely response to outages caused by the weather system.
Information from the Meteorological Service indicates that the approaching system is likely to affect most parishes, with showers, thunderstorms and strong winds. These adverse conditions could result in power outages, JPS said.
JPS President and CEO, Hugh Grant, explained that, “JPS has already started taking the necessary actions to ensure that both JPS teams and Contractors are positioned to restore supply to the affected customers as safely and as quickly as possible.”
He noted, however, that while every effort will be made to restore power supply to affected areas safely and quickly, the teams may not be able to respond immediately if it is unsafe to do so.
“Depending on the severity of the impact of the adverse weather conditions on the power system, restoration could take hours, days, or even weeks. Our priority is to get the power restored safely and quickly, and we will be working with the relevant agencies to reduce delays caused by roadblocks and landslides. We ask our customers for their patience, and give our commitment to keeping affected customers updated throughout the process,” he said.
In the meantime, JPS is urging members of the public to stay away from fallen poles and downed power lines.
“Please make safety your first priority also, as we all work together to restore normalcy after the passage of the weather system,” Grant stressed.
JPS is reminding customers to make reports and get updates through the MyJPS Mobile App, social media channels @myjpsonline, and the JPS WhatsApp channel.
