The Jamaica Public Service Company, JPS, has disclosed that electricity will not be fully restored to St. Elizabeth until the end of the month.
However, the company says it’s on track to meet its August 12 deadline for restoration in all other parishes.
JPS provided the update on Thursday.
Shaloy Smikle reports.
According to JPS, it has restored electricity to 98 per cent of its customers islandwide.
However, the light and power company notes that St. Elizabeth may be an exception. This, as work to restore its infrastructure totally destroyed by Hurricane Beryl is still ongoing.
As a result, JPS says full restoration of service to sections of St. Elizabeth can be expected by August 31.
President and CEO of JPS, Hugh Grant, says based on the extent of the damage, the electrical infrastructure which supplies sections of St. Elizabeth needs to be completely rebuilt. He says in some areas, the network will need to be redesigned and lines relocated.
Mr. Grant says the rebuilding process will be challenging and tedious due to the difficult rocky terrain of the southern parish.
He added that JPS is also redeploying resources from other parishes to focus exclusively on St Elizabeth over the next few weeks.
According to Mr. Grant, JPS has forged new partnerships with local and overseas contractors and suppliers to assist with the recovery. This includes a team of linemen from the Manitoba Hydro Electric Utility in Canada.
The JPS president further indicated that priority attention will be given to critical water pumps and schools in St. Elizabeth during the rebuilding process.
JPS says it will provide further details of specific communities which will be impacted by the delay.
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