A POWER outage which affected at least five parishes yesterday morning leaving some Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd (JPS) customers without electricity for close to 12 hours is being blamed on 'dust balls'.

According to the JPS, the outage, which affected sections of Kingston and St Andrew, Clarendon, St Catherine and Manchester, was caused by what it termed a "flashover".

"Essentially, what happened is that when there are periods of no rainfall, dust gathers on the distribution lines," said Ruthlyn Johnson, corporate communication officer at the JPS.

Rainfall interference

Johnson said when this occurs and there is light rainfall or a drizzle, similar to what occurred yesterday, this causes 'dust balls' or 'water balls' to form on the distribution lines, which creates interference in the system.

Johnson said the company had commenced restoration efforts by7 a.m. yesterday. However, up to about 4 p.m., there were still customers in Old Harbour, St Catherine, without power.

An energy expert, who asked not to be named, said JPS's account of the power outage was plausible.

Poor maintenance

Opposition Spokesman on Energy, Michael Peart, also told The Gleaner that JPS's explanation sounded valid. He, however, noted that even if a flashover occurred, he would not expect it to be so widespread, but that the problem should have been confined to only one or two areas.

Peart said this was evidence that poor maintenance practices were still a concern at the JPS and that this was unacceptable.

"So, this means we're still not out of the woods," he said. Peart further called on the Office of Utilities Regulation to provide the nation with an update on the status of the terms agreed on by the JPS following the last blackout.