ENERGY Minister Daryl Vaz on Tuesday mounted a fresh defence of the Government’s controversial US$150-million loan to the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), telling the House of Representatives that post-hurricane restoration figures prove that “good sense has prevailed”.

The Opposition, however, flatly rejected that assessment, arguing that headline recovery percentages mask deep hardship on the ground, with Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Eastern Dayton Campbell declaring that not a single JPS customer in his constituency currently has electricity.

Updating Parliament on the pace of electricity recovery after Hurricane Melissa which slammed into Jamaica on October 28, 2025, Vaz reported that 491,000 of the 542,000 customers who initially lost power have been reconnected, placing national restoration at roughly 92 to 93 per cent.

“As I speak, 51,000 of close to 700,000 customers are without power,” Vaz said, arguing that Jamaica’s performance is “well above regional peers and is close, if not best in class”.

He further promised that Jamaica will get to 96 per cent by the end of January.

Vaz said the remaining outages cannot be viewed simply as a failure to reconnect lines, explaining that a significant share of the customers still without power are not yet able to safely receive electricity.

“Out of the 51,000 customers that remain, about 21,000 are not ready to receive electricity because of the level of damage in their districts and their communities,” the minister told the House.

Vaz said the Government plans to address the 21,000 households not yet ready for power through a targeted, multi-agency approach, combining electrical rewiring, housing support, and social assistance. He indicated that the Jamaica Social Investment Fund and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security will play key roles in helping residents make their homes safe for reconnection.

The minister added that once those households are accounted for, Jamaica would be close to full restoration within the timeline the Government set when it approved the loan to JPS.

“So when I say that we’re going to get 96 per cent by the end of January, if you really look at it and take out the 21,000 that are not ready for electricity, we would be at almost full restoration,” he said.

Vaz said February would then be used to focus specifically on the most severely affected households, as the Government shifts from emergency restoration to longer-term recovery and rebuilding in communities hardest hit by Hurricane Melissa.

Campbell pushed back strongly against the minister’s explanation, insisting that the statistics being presented do not reflect conditions in Westmoreland Eastern, where he said entire communities remain in darkness.

“As of today there is no customer in Eastern Westmoreland with electricity supplied by the JPS. Not one. Not one single, solitary one,” Campbell told the House.

He said more than 10,000 of the roughly 17,000 customers still without power in Westmoreland are from his constituency, describing the situation as devastating for families and small businesses struggling to recover from the hurricane.

“It’s totally different when you have an entire constituency of persons who currently do not have electricity. It’s affecting their households. It’s affecting their businesses. It’s affecting their livelihood,” Campbell said.

Vaz, responding, said the uneven pace of restoration is a direct result of where Hurricane Melissa made landfall and the level of damage inflicted on western Jamaica. He insisted that crews remain active on the ground and that communities which are structurally ready will continue to be reconnected through to the end of January.

“Those houses and communities that are ready to receive light, we will continue to restore between today straight back to the 30th of January,” he said, adding that clearer projections for the remaining areas are expected once assessments are completed.

The broader financing arrangement also returned to the centre of debate, with Opposition Leader Mark Golding and Opposition energy spokesman Phillip Paulwell reiterating concerns about the adequacy and transparency of the US$150-million loan.

Paulwell reminded the House that earlier estimates placed the cost of restoring the grid at US$350 million, and said the Government has yet to explain the apparent shift.

“I think the country deserves an explanation. I don’t think a minister can come here and give that amount of money and not reflect on that, not come back to say to us it was a bad estimate and that it was in fact $150 million. It requires an explanation, and we are insisting on that,” he said.

He also called for Parliament to be given access to the loan agreement with JPS, arguing that the public deserves to see the terms attached to the financing.

Vaz said the Government remains focused on results rather than political point-scoring, pointing to the restoration of all major hospitals and health centres, and the reconnection of most National Water Commission facilities, as evidence of progress.

Despite the heated exchanges the minister said he understands the frustration of MPs representing hard-hit constituencies.

Responding to Campbell’s challenge over the accuracy of the restoration figures, Vaz said the data was supplied by JPS, and pledged to withdraw and correct any information shown to be inaccurate if evidence is provided.

“If the information that I’ve gotten is not correct and I find that out tomorrow, I’ll be the first one to withdraw and apologise for the bad information that I was given to send on to the country. That’s how I operate every day, all day,” Vaz told the House.

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz giving an update on electricity restoration on Tuesday in the House of Representatives.