Damion Obiglio, president and CEO of the Jamaica Public Service Co. Ltd. (JPS), points to the location of the Duhaney Park, St, Andrew, substation on a map. The substation was the location of the utility pole which collapsed, triggering Wednesday's all-island blackout. Mr. Obiglio was speaking to journalists during a press conference at the JPS headquarters, New Kingston, yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
An energy specialist attached to the University of Technology has recommended that the Government allow other players to provide electricity service to Jamaicans.
Dr. Paul Campbell, research coordinator in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at the University of Technology, was reacting yesterday to Wednesday evening's islandwide power outage.
"They (the Government) need to free up the power-production market so that other persons are able to produce power," Dr. Campbell told The Gleaner.
He called on the Government to change its policy on net metering so that it becomes profitable for those who engage in its practice.
"Net metering is a policy in which customers of the power utility are given the option to produce power on their own facilities with the understanding that if they produce excess power - which is more than they need - that excess power can be sent to the national electricity grid and the customer is compensated; but it is not profitable."
Dr. Campbell said he believed persons should be given the option of selling the power to whomever they liked, or the Government should increase the compensation to a net producer who contributed to the national grid.
He also recommended that the operators of the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited look at promoting technology that could be implemented in the grid so that if there is a failure, it is localised.
"A distributed generation system that localises disturbances that may occur on the grid is a critical aspect of how we can address this. That means not a centralised power system, so that if there is failure, it is not a national failure."
