JPS, developers at odds over meter placement in apartment buildings
Published:Sunday | September 8, 2019 | 12:22 AMCorey Robinson - Staff Reporter
The placement of electrical meters in apartment complexes is at the root of a rift between the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and building developers, who say the issue is costing them heavy delays and money.
“High-rise buildings present a special type of concern because you can’t have the meter at your door because JPS won’t be able to come in and read it,” explained Lenworth Kelly, president of the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica, noting that JPS’s solution is to have all the meters placed on a poll outside.
“But to put all of the meters in a bank outside – and because you are going up so many floors – it gets expensive for developers to run the wires all the way up. For example, if you are on the 15th floor, that is a whole heap of cable, and it adds to the cost of building, which will also be more cost to the homeowner,” he said.
“These are some of the things that have become relatively new to us that we are going to have to start dealing with. So we want to look at issues such as, can the meter centres be on each floor instead?”
Flaws in building plans
Kelly said other electrical issues include running wires through private properties, as well as flaws in building plans.
“So let us say they (developers) are doing 100 houses around a corner and they have to come through your land, then they will have an agreement with you where they pay you a rental to use your land. So the cost of doing that will also be added on,” he stated, explaining that a pre-metering system could provide solutions for this and other problems.
Noting that using outside meter centres is actually a safety feature, Blaine Jarrett, JPS senior vice-president of energy delivery, said, “JPS doesn’t want meter centre on every floor, they want it on the ground, which is an issue for developers. We understand, but we are also quick to point out that JPS is not the only party to be considered. We have to look at the government electrical inspector and others.”