The events surrounding Hurricane Melissa affected how Jamaica was able to produce and receive electricity during the period.

• • Fuel Supply: Our regular natural gas (LNG) supply was temporarily unavailable because the supplier had to secure its infrastructure at sea before the storm. This required JPS and IPPs to rely on more expensive fuels such as on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and Automotive Diesel Oil (ADO), coupled with the use of less efficient generation for reliability reasons.

• • Renewable Energy: Jamaica’s renewable generation—such as wind and solar—was significantly reduced due to weather conditions and damage to equipment during and after the storm.

• • Reduction in energy sales: The passage of Hurricane Melissa also resulted in a reduction of approximately 30% in sales. The fixed costs associated with Fuel and the electricity from Independent Power Producers had to be spread over fewer kilowatt-hours.

These factors influenced the overall cost of generating electricity during the billing cycle.

The Fuel and IPP Charges are costs that are passed through to customers each month, to pay for the fuel and the extra electricity needed to serve customers. These are bills that JPS has to pay each month to the suppliers. These costs change from one month to the next, sometimes resulting in increases and at other times in decreases in customers’ bills.

The additional cost incurred because of Hurricane Melissa is not being fully passed on to customers at this time. That’s because JPS worked with the gas supplier, Excelerate Energy to partially offset millions of dollars, thereby reducing the actual cost passed on to customers.

In order to prevent bill shock for customers, JPS proactively proposed to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) a mechanism to defer the fuel bill over several months, which the regulator approved.

In the absence of these mitigation measures, the bill impact would have been much higher.

Renewables could not have been used immediately after the hurricane because:

1. 1. The Transmission Lines that takes the power from key renewable plants in St Elizabeth and Manchester were severely damaged by the hurricane.
   2. Energy from Wind and Solar is variable in nature, and cannot maintain grid stability. Introducing them too early in the restoration process would have increased the risks of operating the grid, leading to instability and load shedding.
   3. The 37MW solar plant in Westmoreland was completely destroyed by the hurricane and remains unavailable to supply the grid.

You can request a payment extension or set up a payment plan using the MyJPS Mobile App or by contacting our Customer Care Centre at 888-CALL-JPS (225-5577) or 888-935-5577.

While some customers were without electricity for the entire billing period, others did not lose electricity at all, and many got back power at varying points during the billing period. The majority of the customers with electricity will get bills based on actual meter readings. If you are one of these customers, your bill will reflect your actual usage, so you are only being billed for the electricity you used during the billing period.

A small percentage of customers will get bills based on estimates because interruptions in the communication services prevented us from getting readings from your smart meters as scheduled. These estimates are calculated using the last three actual readings obtained from your meter.

[Please pay close attention to your bill, because if there was an outstanding unpaid balance, this will also be reflected on the bill you are getting in December.]

Hurricane Melissa caused significant damage to infrastructure, resulting in interruptions in communication services. This prevented JPS from getting remote readings from the smart meters as scheduled. The estimated bills are calculated using the average of the last three actual readings.