President and CEO of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), Hugh Grant, has warned that Jamaicans could be faced with higher electricity bills due to approaching Tropical Storm Melissa.

Grant gave the warning Thursday morning while responding to questions at a special Jamaica House press briefing that was called to provide an update on the country’s level of readiness for the approaching storm, which is forecast to become a hurricane by weekend.

Grant told the briefing that he had just been notified that the company’s supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be cut because the floating storage regasification unit that provides JPS with LNG will have to be demobilised because of the threat posed by the weather system.

He said with JPS no longer having access to LNG at some of its facilities, as well as the non-availability of a particular unit that can only burn LNG and which is controlled by the independent power producers, it will have to resort to using pricier fuel to keep households and businesses connected.

“What that means for us is that units that are able to burn the alternate diesel oil, those units will burn alternate diesel oil [but] the reality is that’s a more pricey commodity than liquefied natural gas so that could potentially have upward pressure on the bill,” said Grant.

In addition, he said with some of the more efficient combined cycle units being unavailable, and the need to burn less efficient fuel to ensure the security of the grid, “there could be potential upward pressure [on bills]”.

Grant said JPS was working with the Office of Utilities Regulation and other agencies to minimise that upward impact. At the same time, he said that with JPS having now rolled out 100 per cent smart meters across the country, customers can rest assured that whatever bills they receive over this period is accurate.

-Lynford Simpson