76 July 2015 - Business View Caribbean
The Jamaica Public Service
Company Ltd.
Applying a holistic approach to the generation and delivery of energy
The Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd. (JPS) is
the sole distributor of electricity for the island of Ja-
maica. The company can trace its roots back to 1892,
when the country became one of the first in the world
to have electric power - a mere thirteen years after
Thomas Edison perfected the electric light bulb. For
more than a century after the original Jamaica Elec-
tric Light Company began supplying electricity from a
small coal-burning, steam engine generating plant on
Gold Street in Kingston, JPS’s continuing mission has
been to deliver reliable and affordable energy to the
homes and businesses of Jamaica.
And yet during its long history, JPS has seen many
changes in the nature of its ownership and the ex-
tent of its assets. In 1923 the Jamaica Public Service
Company was incorporated as a legal entity, supply-
ing power to 3,928 customers. But its consolidation
of the electric industry in Jamaica had already begun
years before, and it continued until 1945 through a se-
