Last Updated on September 26, 2020, 8:20 AM AST by Anthony Morris
Smart meters of Jamaica Public Service Company have been cleared after customer complaints of high bills and excessive consumption.
The main focus of the investigation by Jamaica’s Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) was on meters which were installed between 2017 and 2019.
During that time, Jamaica Public Service validated had accelerated the deployment of smart residential meters.
However, even when the meters underwent the requisite testing, complaints started emerging of excessive consumption and high bills, particularly in cases of meter replacements.
Similar complaints were experienced during the earlier phases of the smart meter rollout.
However, investigations at that time had been inconclusive and could not isolate any of the three main reasons, over recording of the new meter, under-recording of the old meter, or that the customer previously had an illegitimate connection which was rectified by the replacement of the meter.
The OUR selected a sample of over 300 customer accounts which had undergone meter replacement with smart meters for its study.
Data inspected was monthly consumption for at least 12 months before the meter change and six months after, along with the technical data for the old and new meters.
The conclusion: that within the margins of error, the electricity consumption changes largely showed a normal type of distribution, where accounts with increased consumption were fairly balanced with accounts experiencing reductions.
In other words, as other utilities have experienced and the OUR stated in its findings, that large shifts in average consumption are not unusual following large-scale meter replacements, due to the reduced accuracy of the older meter types.
In particular, above-average consumption changes occurred when the old meter was of electromechanical design, the OUR noted.
“With the investigation now completed, Jamaica Public Service (JPS) is pleased with the satisfactory rating from the OUR which confirms that the integrity and functionality of the technology are up to standard,” the company said in a statement.
JPS installed its first smart meters back in 2008 for C&I customers. The residential rollout was started in 2011 and went island-wide for its over 600,000 customers in 2016.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
