JPS has disclosed that electricity theft in the Riverton City community of St Andrew is at a high of 90% of the power delivered to the community. The Company has also noted with alarm, that the consumption pattern of non-paying users is at excessive levels – over 600 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per day – more than 100 times the average paying customer. This high level of theft has also led to several outages in the community.

JPS has 160 customers in the community of over 1,000 households. When non-customers make multiple illegal connections, indiscriminately running a variety of appliances – some heavy-duty as well – these multiple breaches result in the system being overloaded, resulting in outages. The Company has also lost transformers and has had circuits burnt due to overloading.

JPS has invited residents to become regularized.

The Company is again appealing to persons to desist from the practice of illegally connecting to the power infrastructure.