‘Unacceptable situation’: Minister cries foul as Jamaica suffers blackout

Jamaica has emerged from a rare island-wide power outage that struck the Caribbean Island overnight.

On Saturday morning, Daryl Vaz, Jamaica’s Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, announced that he had received an update that “all affected customers have been restored”.

He added that residents should contact him if they are struggling with “isolated issues” related to the blackout. But he and Prime Minister Andrew Holness both shared statements online communicating that the situation was “unacceptable”.

Only one business controls electricity distribution on the island: the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), a firm that was briefly nationalised in the 20th century, before switching back to private hands.

JPS reported that the island-wide blackout began at about 9pm local time on Friday (2:00 GMT Saturday).

“Our teams will be working throughout the night to restore additional customers as safely and quickly as possible,” it said at the time.

Jamaica is an island with 2.8 million people. The sudden blackout, happening right at the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, quickly spurred alarm about how the electrical grid might withstand a future weather event.

JPS has said it is “investigating the cause of the cause of this incident”. No official explanation was provided as of Saturday morning.