This is a quick update and will be sent out as much as possible.

https://www.jpsco.com/our-partners/

The link above will take you to the JPS website and show you some of their partners. These include places that they buy power from.

Recently in Mandeville specifically, there has been a major increase in the power fluctuations and outages. Now – I’ve been in IT since 1995 and I’ve known about UPSes. I’ve NEVER had to buy one before moving to Mandeville. While I’ve heard about other parishes having worse power issues, I can’t imagine it.

I’ve lived in various parts of Kingston, Spanish Town, MoBay, Sav, Negril and frequented Ocho Rios – that’s a few parishes – and still NEVER needed a UPS. When I first moved to Mandeville, I had to buy one in the first year or two. The power was terrible.

Apparently JPS is having some rather dirty switching between their various partners/suppliers and this causes HORRIBLE fluctuations or outages. Yesterday morning – 2024-01-10 – I counted 14 outages within 2 minutes of each other. Another day I recall hearing a fan in the house cycling up and down. While the regular transients are there, these very bad fluctuations seem to take place between 2AM and 6AM usually.

These fluctuations seem to have started in 2023 – around the middle to last quarter of the year – but I have no definite timeline. I can say for sure that it’s ongoing now into 2024, but some areas may be affected more than others.

An example of damage that can be done is with a genuine HP adapter that was left plugged in by a client. Photo is below. My advice is to use a UPS, surge strip (bare minimum) or fridge guard if possible. Get power surge protection for your home (in the breaker panel) or do whatever you can to mitigate the damages. I highly doubt there’s any recourse where JPS is concerned.

My client had left the laptop plugged in, went out of town and come back the next day. Could have come back to a burned down house. Thanks JPS!