(Jamaica Gleaner) A St Andrew woman was arrested on Wednesday for stealing electricity.
The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is reporting that the police, working with a team from the power company, arrested the woman at her home, where a sophisticated meter bypass was found serving a swimming pool, air-conditioning units, a water heater, and an electric stove.
A direct connection was also found at a business place, but the persons responsible eluded the police and avoided arrest.
JPS notes that the operations came amid increasing tips about electricity theft from customers who want to see this crime brought under control.
Over the past few months, several JPS customers have expressed concerns about significant increases in their light bills.
It was later disclosed by the power company that 20 per cent of its losses are passed on to its customers.
In welcoming the support of customers in reporting electricity thieves, Ramsay McDonald, JPS’s senior vice-president of customer services, said that it was a national outrage and that the crime of electricity theft affects everyone, so it is reassuring to see more persons coming on board to help find solutions.
“JPS is incentivised to reduce electricity theft because it costs the company millions of dollars every year, it sends up the cost of the service to legitimate customers, and it compromises the quality and reliability of power supply by causing outages,” McDonald indicated.
On Wednesday, JPS teams also removed 351 illegal throw-up lines during operations in several communities in the Corporate Area.
The light and power company said that this brings to almost 63,000 the total number of illegal lines removed since the start of the year.
Since January, 33 persons have been arrested for electricity theft.
The Electricity Act 2015 stipulates that anyone who unlawfully abstracts, consumes, diverts, or causes to be diverted any electricity supplied by a single buyer commits an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $5 million or imprisonment not exceeding two years.
Cost of electricity theft
According to Gary Barrow, JPS chief operating officer, the utility company loses approximately US$70 million (J$9 billion) annually to electricity theft, but that figure does not capture the full scale of the haemorrhage as it is limited to the cost of the fuel used to produce electricity.
All told, the bleeding tops $15 billion.
It is said that at least 18 cents in every dollar a customer pays represent a partial clawback by JPS for power theft.
It was also revealed last year that Jamaicans could have their electricity bills slashed by as much as 18 per cent if the company were to eliminate power theft.
McDonald shared that because of the pervasiveness of electricity theft, the utility company has not been able to achieve sustained results in reducing the activity despite investing millions in technology and infrastructure upgrades and dedicating entire teams to carry out strike-force operations and audits at premises.
