CORAL SPRING, Trelawny — Sluggish regulatory processes that adversely affect operations and service delivery were among the raft of concerns raised, Tuesday, by senior representatives of utility providers in Jamaica.

Among those expressing concern was president of the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) Hugh Grant, who argued that regulatory delays and deferred decision-making create significant challenges for operators in the energy sector.

The comments came during a utility service providers round table at the Organization of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OOCUR) 2026 conference, held at Ocean Coral Spring on Tuesday.

While acknowledging the constraints regulators face, Grant underscored that slow approvals often lead to higher costs over time, especially when infrastructure projects are postponed while demand continues to grow.

He said by the time decisions are finalised, implementation becomes more expensive, placing added pressure on consumers.

The JPS head highlighted the need for stronger collaboration to speed up approvals and bring critical infrastructure to market faster, ensuring energy systems remain “safe, reliable, resilient, and cost-effective”.

“It’s very important that we be more nimble and agile in how we do what we do, especially when you have an industry that’s transforming right under our eyes,” Grant said.

“Because what we’re seeing is, when we fail to do that — and you’re seeing it globally — you have hyper scalers who are trying to do it themselves. You have the Microsofts, you have the Googles, you have the Amazons. They’re doing it in a growing market,” he added.

Weighing in on the discussion, vice-president and general manager at Flow Jamaica Stephen Price said the country needs to speed up deployment of advanced wireless technologies such as 5G and future 6G, but slow, complex approval processes are holding this back. He referenced the building of the dense network of towers required to provide service.

“Think about what we have to do to get one site up in my country. It takes an average of probably about maybe 14 months because I have to go through NEPA (National Environment and Planning Agency), Ministry of Health, have to go to municipality; then I have to come back to the consumer, do a survey — all these things in order to get a site up. Now, these are technologies that are used globally. We’ve done the debunking, we’ve told them about radiation levels — all these kind of things — but still we have to go through this process over and over again,” Price noted.

He called for better coordination among government agencies to streamline approvals, not a single authority.

According to Price, faster roll-out is critical because greater connectivity drives economic growth.

He argued that while the spectrum generates revenue, Caribbean countries should focus on making it more accessible and efficiently used, rather than relying heavily on auction models, to expand coverage and benefits across the region.

“I’m happy to see the narrow kind of legislation for Jamaica, which is hopefully to get stuff much more efficient and pushed through so that big projects can get done, but it shouldn’t have to come to this,” Price said.

Stephen Murad, chief executive officer of Digicel Jamaica, who agreed with Price, noted that outside of hurricanes, theft and vandalism are major challenges.

Murad emphasised the need for stronger pressure from regulators on policymakers and the judiciary to create tougher deterrents and impose harsher sentences.

He highlighted the significant waste of time, energy, and financial resources — both capital and operational — caused by these issues in Jamaica, adding that such actions seem to deliberately make their work more difficult every day.

But, Grant noted that the regulator showed commendable agility during Hurricane Melissa’s restoration efforts.

He highlighted a first-of-its-kind solution in Jamaica, deployment of emergency mobile generators to supply power to remote communities.

Grant pointed out that by collaborating quickly with the regulator to establish the necessary framework and cost-recovery approach, power was restored in a fraction of the expected time. He underscored this as a clear example of strong partnership, open-mindedness, agility, and delivering meaningful results for appreciative customers.

“It tells us that we have the muscle to do it,” Grant said.

The round table discussion was held under the theme ‘Utility Perspectives on Regulation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Learnings’.

The moderator was David Morton, chair of the International Confederation of Energy Regulators. The panellists were rounded off by Christopher Mapp, acting chief executive officer of the Barbados Water Authority.

— Horace Hines