KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica Public Service has entered the closing stretch of its islandwide recovery programme, shifting heavy resources toward restoring the transmission backbone in St Elizabeth as part of post–Hurricane Melissa reconstruction.
Company executives met with councillors of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation on Wednesday, January 14, to outline the progress and the remaining challenges in re-energising the parish and surrounding western communities.
The hurricane, which struck in late October, left Jamaica’s high-voltage grid severely compromised. Transmission corridors — the main arteries carrying electricity from generating plants to substations — suffered widespread structural failure, forcing JPS to undertake large-scale rebuilding rather than routine repair.
President and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant reported that hundreds of technical staff have been mobilised across western Jamaica, with more than 200 currently working within St Elizabeth alone. The restoration plan, he explained, follows a strict engineering sequence.
“Transmission must come first,” Grant said. “Without those lines feeding the substations, there is nothing to distribute. Once the substations are powered, communities can be safely brought back online in stages.”
According to JPS, over 20 miles of damaged transmission routes in the parish are now under reconstruction, much of it through rugged interior terrain. Crews have been replacing fallen structures, redirecting damaged spans, and reinforcing corridors to improve resilience against future storms.
The company acknowledged that progress has been slowed in several areas by access constraints, as many damaged sections lie far from road networks.
“Some worksites require specialised transport, heavy lifting equipment, and long manual haul distances,” Grant noted. “That inevitably stretches timelines, but our teams are maintaining round-the-clock operations to keep momentum.”
While restoration has advanced steadily, JPS confirmed that certain districts will remain without power for longer as the most complex sections of the grid are rebuilt.
Grant underscored that households still without electricity remain the company’s primary focus. “There are customers who have endured extended outages, and bringing them back on supply is now the centre of our operations,” he said.
The session, chaired by Councillor Richard Solomon, Mayor of Black River, concluded with division-by-division briefings to municipal leaders, detailing reconnection schedules and the next phases of grid stabilisation across the parish.
