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🇯🇲 Jamaica /Energy & Infrastructure

Jamaica Blackout: Officials Scramble for Answers After Nationwide Grid Failure

From Jamaica Gleaner · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • Jamaica experienced a nationwide power outage lasting several hours due to a cascading effect triggered by lightning strikes near critical power plants.
  • The CEO of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) acknowledged the grid's total collapse was unexpected and stated the company is investigating the cause of the cascading failure.
  • The Energy Minister expressed embarrassment over the incident, highlighting it as a national security concern and a potential blow to Jamaica's image as a growing economy, while restoration efforts were completed by Saturday morning.

Jamaica's entire electricity grid collapsed for several hours on Friday night into Saturday, leaving the nation in darkness. Government officials and the head of the state-licensed electricity distributor, Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo), are still investigating the cause of the "cascading effect" that plunged the island into blackness.

The thing that we have to learn from right now is what transpired that caused this cascading effect whereby as a result of lightning strikes in one area of the grid, we have a cascading effect of generating outages across the grid.

— Hugh GrantCEO of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) explaining the situation to journalists.

Hugh Grant, CEO of JPSCo, admitted that a total grid collapse "is not something we expect to happen." He noted that lightning strikes near power plants caused damage to equipment at a sub-station and broke transmission lines. The company began restoring power within an hour of the 9:02 p.m. outage, with the full grid back online by 6:30 a.m. Saturday.

Energy Minister Daryl Vaz called the situation an "embarrassment," emphasizing that the system should have prevented a single point of failure from taking down the entire grid. He stated that such widespread outages are a national security concern and could harm Jamaica's image as a "prosperous growing economy." This marks the sixth all-island shutdown since 2006, with the last occurring in April 2016.

Something that started in Kingston ended up making its way all the way through to [the] western end of the island. The system should have been in a position where if one area went down, it should not have caused the entire system to go down.

— Daryl VazEnergy Minister expressing his concerns about the grid's failure.

Matthew Samuda, minister responsible for water, reported that approximately 65,000 National Water Commission customers were without water as of Saturday afternoon. The Office of Utilities Regulation has requested a preliminary report from JPSCo, due Monday, and will conduct a full incident report review within 30 days to determine necessary actions.

That’s the question that has to be answered. This for me, as minister, is an embarrassment.

— Daryl VazEnergy Minister's reaction to the widespread power outage.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Jamaica Gleaner in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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