THERE was elation among residents of the former Riverton City, now Riverton Meadows, in St Andrew Western on Thursday as Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), in partnership with Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), closed out a programme that regularised more than 200 households onto the power grid.

More than $150 million was pumped into the initiative dubbed the Riverton Meadows Electricity Access Project. It was aimed at tackling electricity theft, which was widespread in the community.

One resident, Rushelle Dubidad, expressed gratitude to JPS and its partners for seeing the need to implement the project. According to her, electricity theft was rampant prior to the programme and was causing a lot of stress on people in the community.

“JPS came in and gave us light infrastructure and we are really proud of that because we used to lose a lot of things with the illegal system. We lost televisions, fridges, you name it. As soon as somebody who needs more power than you go on the light post and boost the light, everything in your house chip out.

“Now JPS come in and give us the light and nobody can go on the pole and do what they want to do. The light won’t just chip out suddenly anymore, so we really appreciate this and we are grateful. At the end of the day we can be in our house and don’t have to be worrying about the light,” said Dubidad.

“When the light used to chip out we had to give a man $30,000 to go up on the post. Now that JPS come in with the system we don’t have to worry about giving a man $30,000,” Dubidad told the
Jamaica Observer at Riverton Meadows Baptist Church, where the closing out ceremony, as well as a Christmas treat for children, was held.

Marilyn McDonald, manager of JPS’s Community Renewal Department, said prior to the project the company was experiencing at least a 90 per cent revenue loss in Riverton.

According to McDonald, the project was aimed at improving the quality of life of the residents by providing safe, reliable, and legal electricity supply.

“The project focused on transitioning households from non-customers to legitimate electricity service while fostering social transformation, energy responsibility, and community development. The total investment for the JPS phase one project in Riverton Meadows amounted to $95.5 million. Thirty-seven million [dollars] went to social intervention, $58 million was for pole, line, and infrastructure upgrade. In addition to that, another $55 million was invested by the JPS Foundation, bringing the total project investment from the JPS side to $153 million within the community of Riverton Meadows,” McDonald highlighted.

“The primary objective was to provide proper metering and approved house wiring to reduce technical losses resulting from electricity and unsafe connections, to facilitate social and economic empowerment by enabling residents to benefit from electricity for household and small business use,” added McDonald.

She said the project was also aimed at strengthening partnerships with Government agencies and community leaders to ensure sustainability of the intervention.

Other key activities included house-to-house assessment and community mapping to identify eligible beneficiaries, electrical inspections, and facilitation of house wiring applications.

“We did infrastructure upgrades, including the installation of poles; transformers and service lines; customer on-boarding and contract signing for new accounts; community sensitisation focused on electricity safety, energy conservation, and payment culture. Our partnership with JSIF and the Government of Jamaica resulted in more than 200 new prepaid customers each benefiting from more than $4,000 per month in electricity credit over six months, totalling $4.8 million. The $153-million is going up and up and up,” McDonald said.

Anthony Hylton, the Member of Parliament for St Andrew Western, said he was pleased to see that after intense lobbying to prove that Riverton was in need of the project, it is now a reality.

Pia Baker, the senior vice-president of customer and commercial services at JPS, said that access to electricity is not simply about power lines and meters but it is about opportunity.

“It is about children being able to study safely at night, families preserving food and medicines, small businesses operating legally and sustainably, and communities being fully connected to the economic and social life of the country,” Baker said.

Riverton Meadows residents attend Thursday’s closing out ceremony at Riverton Meadows Baptist Church, where Jamaica Public Service Company, in partnership with Jamaica Social Investment Fund, regularised more than 200 households onto the power grid.

This video grab shows JPS Community Relations Officer Kerrica McGregor discussing electricity access with Riverton resident Jermaine Flowers.