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By Halshane Burke
The Office of Utilities Regulation says it saw a decrease in complaints for the January to March quarter this year when compared with the similar period last year.
The OUR's Quarterly Performance Report for first quarter 2024 shows that its Consumer Affairs Unit received 736 contacts, an 18 per cent decrease.
Of this number, 285 or 39 per cent related to the NWC; 262 or 36 per cent related to JPS; 88, were for Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited, FLOW; and 47 or 6 per cent for Cable and Wireless Jamaica Limited, also referred to as FLOW.
The remaining contacts were split between Digicel, private water and sewerage service providers, private telecommunications service providers and 'Other'.
The regulator says the most significant decreases were in the categories of Irregular Supply, which went down by 70 per cent; Poor Service Quality, by 53 per cent and complaints about Interruption of Service, by 24 per cent.
Disconnection was the only main category, with an increase in contacts of 20 per cent.
During the review period, the OUR says billing matters, at 54 per cent, remained the main reason utility consumers contacted the consumer affairs unit, representing a ten-percentage point increase compared with the preceding period.
Contacts relating to NWC at 217 or 29 per cent and JPS, 142 or 19 per cent, accounted for the highest number of billing-related matters.
Compensation for Service Breaches During the quarter, amounting to just under $53.4 million was paid out to affected utility customers.
JPS's compliance report on its Guaranteed Standards performance indicated that it committed 21,669 breaches, representing a 6 per cent increase compared with the preceding period.
These breaches attracted compensatory payments of approximately $48.4 million, which were applied automatically to the affected customers' accounts.
The NWC's Guaranteed Standards report for the review period indicates that 3,066 breaches were committed during the review period, representing a 35 per cent increase over the prior quarter.
These breaches had a potential payout of approximately $14.2 million.
But, only approximately $4.4 million, or 31 per cent of total potential payments were made through automatic credits to the affected accounts.
The remaining 69 per cent of potential payments not made include those breaches for which the affected customers did not submit the required claim forms for validation.
Aside from the Guaranteed Standards compensation, $561,000 was secured for utility consumers through the OUR's intervention during the review period.
NWC accounted for 91 per cent of this sum.
The remaining $50,000 was shared between FLOW and JPS.
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