New JPSCo's Bogue plant to bolster energy supply The board of directors of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo), faced with a significant shortfall in generating capacity which has led to widespread load shedding, has approved the installation of a 25-megawatt generating unit at its Bogue plant in Montego Bay, St. James. The unit, to be put in service by August, this year, was part of the mechanism worked out to reduce interruptions when the newly-appointed board met just under two weeks ago, the first time since Mirant Corporation of Atlanta acquired majority stake in the monopoly light and power supplier. In a report to members of the board, the JPSCo. said it has completed work on the Old Harbour number 3 unit which has been off line since early March due to a fire, and that should significantly reduce the extent of service interruptions. In addition, said the report, work continued on the number 2 unit at Old Harbour, which has been undergoing routine maintenance and repairs to a damaged turbine since the end of January, and that should be back in operation by August. The meeting also heard that between April and May, the JPSCo. lost an average of one per cent of the energy it produced because of routine load shedding for three hours each day. That resulted in about four unserved gigiwatt hours during a 45-day period. The report also said that the JPSCo. has started discussions with the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) regarding the installation of another 40 megawatts in 2002, and is the first of three installations that is expected to add another 120 megawatts of generating capacity between 2002 and 2004. Improve customer service Members of the board were also informed that the JPSCo, as part of a move to improve customer service, would be closing some of its inefficient offices and maximise the resources provided by their 24-hour call centre. The JPSCo. is currently working on a three-year business plan to be presented to the board at its June meeting. Among other things, it will focus on the development of a long-term maintenance programme that will ensure a high level of reliability of its generating units, improvement of the company's corporate image, and the development and implementation of a financing strategy that will significantly improve its cash flow and financial performance. In February, this year, the Jamaican Government sold 80 per cent of its shareholding in the JPSCo. to Mirant Corpora-tion. The Government retained a 20 per cent stake in the company and subsequently named three representatives to the board. They are Professor Gordon Shirley, former JPSCo. chairman and Professor of Operations Management and Executive Director of the Mona School of Business at the University of the West Indies; Eleanor Brown, attorney and executive officer at Caribbean Equity Partners; and Prakash Vaswani, businessman. Those appointed by Mirant to the JPSCo. board were: J.R. Harris, a senior vice-president of Mirant Americas and chief executive officer of the Mirant Americas South America and Caribbean region; Richard J. Pershing, chief executive officer of Mirant Americas and executive vice-president of Mirant Corporation; Charles Matthews, a former director of external affairs for Mirant Americas in Atlanta; David Dunbar, vice-president of operations and development for Mirant Americas Caribbean; Julius Hollis, president of the Atlanta-based investment firm Hollis and Company, and who has served as a consultant to Mirant; and Charles Johnston, chairman of Jamaica Producers Group.
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