Business View Caribbean - July 2015 77
ries of mergers, buy-outs, and amalgamations of, and
with, other electric companies on the island. Finally, in
1966, JPS was granted an All-Island Electricity License
by the Jamaican government. Four years later, the gov-
ernment decided to take over the formerly privately-
owned company and acquired a controlling interest in
it.
JPS continued to be publicly owned until 2001, when
the Mirant Corporation bought 80 percent of the com-
pany’s operating shares, leaving the government with
19 percent, and minority shareholders with the re-
maining one percent. In 2007, Marubeni Caribbean
Power Holdings, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of
Marubeni Corporation of Japan, purchased Mirant’s
majority share, and finally, in 2011, Korea East West
Power entered into an agreement with Marubeni for
joint ownership of the company.
Today, JPS provides service to more than 603,350 resi-
dential and business customers through an integrated
system that includes several power plants, a transmis-
sion and distribution network, and customer service
offices across the island. While JPS owns and operates
a number of fossil fuel plants that use Heavy Fuel Oil
(HFO) and Automotive Diesel Oil (ADO) to create elec-
tricity, eight hydro-electric plants, and one wind farm,
it doesn’t actually produce all of the island’s electric
power (which peaks at 650 megawatts, a bit less than
is used by the city of Philadelphia).
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
The Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd.
WHAT:
An integrated electric utility firm and the
sole distributor of electricity in Jamaica
WHERE:
Headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica
with customer service offices throughout the
island
WEBSITE
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