KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has instructed the Minister with responsibility for energy, Phillip Paulwell, to secure the services of Canadian experts to investigate the islandwide blackout which occurred last Saturday, July 15.
Information and Development Minister, Senator Colin Campbell made this disclosure as he addressed journalists at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Monday, July 17.
He said the government was “still not happy” with the report provided by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company, which failed to identify any precise cause that resulted in the power outage.
Prior to the Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister had met with the management of the utility company, at which time the report was presented, Senator Campbell informed.
“The government is still not happy with the report and as a result, the Prime Minister has instructed Minister Paulwell to immediately seek overseas assistance to get the necessary experts into Jamaica as quickly as possible to pinpoint the specific reasons for the islandwide outage,” he explained.
Senator Campbell said that, “the Prime Minister insists that the country cannot be comfortable unless we know the specific reasons for the outage and this matter is of serious national security and national defence consequences”.
The experts being sought by the government were responsible for investigating a power outage that took place in Ontario, Canada last year.
According to the report submitted to the government by the JPS, at the time of the blackout, instances of serious lightning were reported in some sections of the country as well as scattered showers.
“However, whereas the company has not ruled out weather involvement, they have reported that based on the system records, the first event which led to the shutdown was a fault on the Bogue/Duncans transmission line. That circuit is critical to the network and ties in all generating stations,” the Minister said.
Subsequent to that fault, he added, the generators at the utility company’s independent power producers, Jamaica Private Power Company (JPPC) as well as Jamaica Energy Partners (JEP) tripped offline and as a result, this caused a system disturbance.
