CORAL SPRING, Trelawny — Senior leaders of Jamaica’s major utility companies used a high-profile industry conference this week to shine a spotlight on a persistent, costly problem: glacial regulatory approval processes that are undermining operational efficiency, delaying critical infrastructure projects, and ultimately passing higher costs on to consumers. The conversation unfolded Tuesday during a utility provider round table hosted as part of the 2026 conference of the Organization of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OOCUR), held at Jamaica’s Ocean Coral Spring resort, bringing together top executives from across the region’s energy and telecommunications sectors to compare challenges and share actionable insights.
Opening the discussion on regulatory bottlenecks, Hugh Grant, president of Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) — the island nation’s primary electricity provider — explained that extended waiting periods for regulatory decisions and delayed project approvals create cascading challenges for energy sector operators. While Grant acknowledged that regulators operate under their own set of resource and procedural constraints, he emphasized that holding up infrastructure projects amid steadily rising consumer demand inevitably inflates long-term costs. When final approval is finally granted, post-decision implementation comes at a far higher price point than initially projected, pushing that extra financial burden directly onto everyday households and businesses.
Grant called for deeper cross-sector collaboration between utility providers and regulators to cut red tape and accelerate the delivery of critical energy infrastructure, a shift he said is necessary to keep Jamaica’s energy network safe, reliable, resilient, and affordable for all users. “We have to become far more nimble and agile in how we approach our work, especially at a moment when our industry is undergoing rapid transformation right in front of us,” Grant said. He added a warning drawn from global trends: when regulated utilities cannot move fast enough to meet growing demand for energy and connectivity, large global technology firms such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have increasingly stepped in to build their own independent energy infrastructure to fill the gap.
The critique of slow approval processes was echoed by Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager of Flow Jamaica, one of the country’s leading telecommunications providers. Price told the round table that Jamaica is falling behind in rolling out next-generation wireless technologies, including 5G and future 6G networks, all because overly complex, multi-step approval timelines are holding up tower infrastructure deployment. To put the scale of the problem in perspective, Price noted that building a single new cell tower in Jamaica takes an average of 14 months, as providers must navigate overlapping approval processes with the National Environment and Planning Agency, the Ministry of Health, local municipal authorities, and additional community survey requirements — even after the industry has repeatedly addressed public concerns over radiation safety and other common misconceptions.
Rather than calling for a complete overhaul that creates an entirely new standalone regulatory body, Price pushed for improved inter-agency coordination to streamline the approval pipeline. He emphasized that faster network expansion is not just a corporate priority: broader, more reliable connectivity is a core driver of national economic growth. Price also noted that many Caribbean nations rely too heavily on spectrum auctions to generate short-term government revenue, arguing that policymakers should instead prioritize expanding spectrum access and improving efficiency to extend connectivity benefits across all segments of regional populations. While he welcomed recent narrow legislative reforms in Jamaica aimed at speeding up large project approvals, Price added that such targeted fixes should not be necessary in a well-functioning regulatory system.
Stephen Murad, chief executive officer of Digicel Jamaica, another major telecommunications provider, echoed Price’s concerns and added another pressing challenge facing local utilities: widespread infrastructure theft and vandalism. Murad told the panel that outside of damage caused by severe hurricanes, these criminal acts are the most disruptive issue facing his company. He called on regulators to apply greater pressure on policymakers and the judiciary to create stronger criminal deterrents, including harsher sentencing for convicted offenders. Murad noted that theft and vandalism drain massive amounts of time, energy, and capital — both for upfront infrastructure investment and ongoing operational costs — and create daily, unnecessary hurdles for utility teams trying to deliver consistent service.
Despite the litany of challenges, the round table also highlighted a successful example of agile, collaborative regulation that delivered tangible results for consumers. Grant pointed to JPS’s post-hurricane restoration efforts following Hurricane Melissa, where regulators showed impressive flexibility and speed to cut through red tape. In a first for Jamaica, JPS deployed emergency mobile generators to restore power to hard-to-reach remote communities. By working quickly with regulators to establish a clear operational framework and cost-recovery plan, the company restored power in a fraction of the time originally projected.
Grant framed the successful restoration as proof that the collaborative, agile model works, demonstrating what can be achieved when regulators and utilities work together toward the shared goal of serving consumers. “It tells us that we have the muscle to do it,” Grant said.
The round table, held under the official theme “Utility Perspectives on Regulation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Learnings,” was moderated by David Morton, chair of the International Confederation of Energy Regulators. The panel was completed by Christopher Mapp, acting chief executive officer of the Barbados Water Authority, who joined fellow utility leaders from across the Caribbean in the discussion.
