I do NOT support the flat fee for people who are stealing electricity and so I am making the following proposal.
- Every resident must get their homes inspected and deemed fit to accept electricity in a safe manner.
- Where the house cannot accept electricity the JPS will assist in getting this done at a cost to be borne 50% by JPS and 50% by the customer. JPS will recover the 50% it paid over a period of 2 yrs based on the deliver of service to the customers involved.
- Once passed fit the customer must be issued with a smart electricity meter under the following conditions:
- Needs analysis be done, no need to re-invent the wheel use listing of path beneficiary in each of these areas and that will be used to determine their ability to pay.
- An audit will be done of the appliances in these household to arrive at an approximate estimate of their electrical usage on a daily and monthly basis.
- JPS will then set their smart meters to the maximum allowable limit for the month eg let’s say 150 Kwh / mth ( This would be based on the needs analysis). Once this limit is reached the meter will disengage the power and no power will be supplied until the customer comes in and makes payment to reset their limit( the 30 days begins at each reset point).
- Once the customer reaches 80% of the maximum allowable consumption, they will be sent a SMS to indicate 80% of max limit reached. It would be now up to the customer to take action to prevent the interruption of power.
- JPS will charge the customer a flat rate of $15.00 per kWh. There will be no other charges ie NO IPP, NO Forex adjustment etc. Only other charge would be fixed meter rental charge of a nominal figure, let’s say $100 per mth.
- If customer over time is able to pay more having now been able to earn more, they can go into the JPS office and request a change from 150 kWh to 200 kWh, but this extra 50 kWh would now be at market rate including IPP, Forex charges etc.
The idea behind the above is as follows:
- People are held accountable
- People pay for usage, the more you use the more you pay.
- People get used to being responsible for their own situation.
- People are able to get the service and contribute something to the delivery of the service
- People get to set their usage limits and must do what is necessary to keep the service by being responsible in the usage.
So I say NO to flat rate as that only encourages waste in the service, because those using knows that no matter how much the use, they will only be required to pay $X and that cannot be right.
We must begin the weaning process and get people to recognize that nothing in life is free, you must pay for what you get.
JPS should also consider using pvc pipes along the length of aluminium power carrying cables in these areas to negate against the effects of throw up. It will not eliminate the problem, however it will certainly slow it down in many areas.
Finally JPS needs to look inside, as many of these illegal connects (not the throw up) are being facilitated by JPS workers and or contractors , who are being handsomely rewarded for their efforts.
A dat me seh !
Filed under: Energy |
Warren's Blog 
I see JPS is taking on some suggestions I made earlier today.
I find it surprising how pervasive the idea that this problem can be addressed in any meaningful way without the application of force is. Community meetings and attempts to teach (or promote) accountability and responsibility are simply a grand waste of time, effort and money.
The thieves are not stealing because they don’t know better or because they are poor. They are stealing because they have assessed the situation and concluded that stealing is the right choice.
There is no penalty for stealing electricity – not legal, social, economic or otherwise. Many of these same people live in communities ruled by dons. The don can leave almost any possession of his unattended in those communities and no one would dare steal it. Why? The answer is obvious – serious penalties would be swiftly imposed on the thief and or his family. People in a number of these communities testify that they can go to bed with their doors unlocked. Why? Same reason – brutal sanctions are imposed on any who might attempt to harm or steal from them.
JPS has no ability to impose meaningful sanctions on these thieves, and will find it difficult if not impossible to mobilize the quantity of force needed to physically secure infrastructure in those communities. The truth is, even if the JPS were to find a way to isolate the thieves from the grid and so no thief in those communities had access to electricity and all paying customers had access, the thought of 200,000 votes at risk would result in the political directorate being immediately mobilized to put a stop to it.
As such JPS would be better of playing the game as the rules have been laid out. Tolerate the theft of electricity as a form of social welfare while applying the lash generously and vigorously to the paying customers. The JPS will need to threaten black outs in order to ensure that the GoJ and OUR allow the ever increasing rate increases which will be necessary to support this model. Especially as the largest consumers of electricity will find ways to divorce themselves from the price increases – either through building their own plants or forcing JPS, the OUR and the GoJ to allow them concessionary rates.