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Prince Moore reports
The Consumer Affairs Unit of the Office of Utilities Regulation is reporting that it has secured about $6.3 million in redress for utility customers.
This information is contained in the OUR's quarterly performance report for January to March 2025.
The compensation comprises previously unreported credits to customers' accounts in earlier periods, plus $3.21 million relating to payments made in the January to March quarter.
Payments by JPS accounted for $4.1 million or 66% and NWC for $1.38 million or 22% of this total. Columbus Communications, operating as Flow Jamaica, accounted for $425,000 or 7% and $259,000 or 4% respectively, while Digicel accounted for $50,000 or 1%.
The OUR says an additional $62.1 million in compensation was also made by way of credit to customers' bills by the Jamaica Public Service Company for breaches of the guaranteed standards (GS) for the quarter.
JPS compliance report on its GS performance for the review period indicated that 25,043 breaches were committed, representing a 5?crease compared with the preceding quarter.
These breaches attracted compensatory payments of approximately $56.7 million, all of which were applied automatically to the affected customers' accounts.
The NWC's guaranteed standards compliance report for the review period indicates that 3,808 breaches were committed during the review period, representing a 23% increase over the preceding period.
These breaches had a potential payout of approximately $17.9 million, while actual payments amounted to approximately $5.4 million or 30% of total potential payments and were made through automatic credits to the affected accounts.
The OUR says the remaining 70% of potential payments not made include those breaches for which the affected customers did not submit the required claim forms for validation.
Meanwhile, the OUR says small water and sewerage service provider Can-Cara Development, committed four breaches of its guaranteed standards, for which compensation of $16,000 was automatically applied to the affected customers' account.
During the January to March 2025 quarter, there was an 8% reduction in the number of contacts received by the OUR's Consumer Affairs Unit.
It says, the most significant decrease was in the category of interruption of service, down 45%.
At 51%, billing matters remained the main reason utility consumers contacted the Consumer Affairs Unit with JPS, 25% and NWC, 21%, accounting for the highest number of such concerns.
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