KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) says the department responsible for designing, installing and maintaining the protection systems that monitor and control the JPS grid, has received international certification.

In a statement, JPS said its System Protection and Control Department recently received International Organization for Standardization, ISO, certification.

JPS said the department is also responsible for the detection and isolation of faults that can compromise safety and cause damage that lead to widespread outages.

The ISO 9001: 2015 certification is based on the international standards for quality management systems.

”It is not just a nod to the robustness of the processes and equipment protecting the electricity network but shows JPS’ commitment to customers through ongoing service reliability improvements,” the company said.

JPS said the certificate will be officially handed over at a ceremony to be held by the National Certification Body of Jamaica (NCBJ), on Wednesday, during World Quality Week.

The NCBJ is a member body of the ISO and executed the certification process. Through the implementation of its Quality Management System JPS began preparing for the undertaking in 2019.

JPS’ Project Manager for the ISO 9001 2015 Certification Process, Uton Tobin, said “with the seven pillars of the ISO 9001: 2015 Certification being focused on high-quality innovation and process flow to benefit customers, this not only builds credibility but is very customer centred. This is an invaluable aspect of the whole process to me.”

With a membership of 166 national standardisation bodies worldwide, the ISO develops thousands of international standards to foster innovation and solve issues.

Two additional team members at the helm of the department’s certification, Lenbern Hopkins and Shane Brown, director of Transmission and manager of System Protection and Control respectively, acknowledged that despite JPS’ grid protection system being top tier, it is still on a journey to increased customer confidence and satisfaction.

“JPS is both very pleased and honoured to have the work of such a vital department certified at the highest international level. As we recognise World Quality Week, November 8 – 12, we are committed to providing an even more resilient and reliable system to our customers,” said Blaine Jarrett, senior vice president of Energy Delivery at JPS.