OUR director general Ansord Hewitt says customer-service issues after Hurricane Melissa may persist this year, with improvements expected over time.
Utility customers should brace for lingering service frustrations, but officials say things should steadily get better as the year progresses.
Director General of Jamaica’s Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), Ansord Hewitt, told Misryoum that customer service-related problems, which worsened after Hurricane Melissa last October, are expected to continue for the remainder of 2026, though at “reducing levels.”
In this context, the OUR head said complaints have intensified across the telecommunications, water, and electricity sectors regulated by the agency.
He pointed to the balance utility companies faced after major storms: restoring service quickly versus maintaining quality during the rush to rebuild.
That trade-off matters because customers tend to notice quality issues most during the weeks after restoration begins, when systems may be running but not yet operating at their usual standard.
Hewitt said the major complaint the OUR has received since Melissa has centered on quality of service.. He also suggested the logic behind the situation: accelerated restoration efforts can lead to neglect of quality, especially when crews are focused on returning power, water, and telecommunications infrastructure to customers as fast as possible.
He added that some components of the grid and telecom networks require longer rebuilding timelines, meaning improvements in service quality often follow restoration itself.. He said even after full restoration, there is typically additional work involved, including cleanup and efforts to bring service back to expected levels.
Meanwhile, the OUR is pushing utility providers to address the customer-service concerns as quickly as they can, while acknowledging that the public cannot be asked to tolerate a deterioration in standards indefinitely.
To provide context, Hewitt described how earlier post-storm restoration efforts have taken months, noting that companies indicated they would still need further time to return customer service levels to pre-storm conditions.
At Misryoum, this is a reminder that “getting back online” and “getting back to normal” are not the same timeline for utility systems, and regulators often have to manage expectations while quality is rebuilt.
As the OUR head framed it, the direction is toward improvement as the year continues, with customer service issues expected to be present for now but not at the same intensity going forward.