Robertson

ENERGY MINISTER James Robertson has signalled that his government wants to dismantle the electricity, distribution and transmission monopoly of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

In his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in Parliament on Tuesday, Robertson said that similar to power generation, power transmission and distribution must be open to competition.

The JPS operates under an all-island licence which expires in 2019.

"This administration intends to open the power-generation market to allow for greater participation by the private sector," Robertson told Parliament.

will assist greatly

"We believe that this approach will greatly assist in reducing the price of electricity to consumers, including the private sector," the minister added.

Phillip Paulwell, the opposition spokesman on energy, who first mooted the idea of breaking the JPS monopoly in his Sectoral presentation, told The Sunday Gleaner that he was available to provide free technical service to the Government in any such negotiation.

"It took six months, once we sat down, to get an agreement with Cable and Wireless, and I believe that if both parties are serious, it could be done within a year or two," Paulwell said.

According to Paulwell, negotiating with the JPS would be much easier than the talks his administration had with Cable and Wireless.

"Negotiating with Cable and Wireless would have been more challenging because we were being told that telecommunications was a natural monopoly, and we did not have many examples to prove that wrong. The same arguments that we were able to use to counter what the telecoms people were saying, now, with the improvements in technology, it is the same arguments that we need to use in any discussion with the JPS," Paulwell said.

Government owns 20 per cent of the JPS. Both Robertson and Paulwell have said that the JPS continues to be inefficient in its production and distribution of energy.

Paulwell said that opening the electricity business to competition would force the JPS to be more efficient in its use of energy to generate power. He also said that the use of renewable energy to generate power would make electricity cheaper for consumers.