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FRUSTRATED residents of Denver Crescent and nearby areas in Maverley, St Andrew, are threatening to block sections of Washington Boulevard to protest against what they describe as excessive electricity bills from Jamaica Public Service (JPS).Residents showed the Jamaica Observer copies of their bills during a visit to the community Wednesday and indicated that they had doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled. They noticed drastic changes to their bills over a month ago after the JPS attached new systems to light poles in the area to clamp down on electricity theft.However, they said the surprisingly high bills are draining their scarce resources and have called on the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to intervene and investigate.One senior citizen said since she began receiving the high bills she has been unable to afford enough food on her meagre pension.Another female resident claimed that, "After dem put up the new system, November bill did rise likkle. But the December bill come to over $80,000, suh mi plug out di fridge, plug out di camera, and plug out every single thing weh mi know will attract nuff current."One male resident said he used to pay approximately $4,000 for electricity. Now, bills are upwards of $15,000."A two house me responsible for. For one of them, mi used to pay $4,100. The November to December bill mi pay $16,664. A bill just come for over $17,000 and that house naah use. Nobody naah utilise it because my woman deh a foreign. Dem $16,000 and $17,000 bill coming like a JPS a use di light and a bill we for it. From dem put in the new system, this start happen," another resident said."Me can't manage it. Mi wish mi coulda find some way fi steal some light and just done wid this paying of light bill. A lot of people are even trying to regularise, but you are pushing them back to the same [illegal] system. If you ago give dem some excess bill weh dem can't account for, weh you think ago happen?"JPS Director of Communications Winsome Callum, however, said several factors contributed to the increases in electricity bills in the past two months, affecting all of its customers."As indicated in earlier communication to customers and the media, higher fuel prices and devaluation of the Jamaican dollar have been the main contributors to higher electricity bills in the latter part of 2021, and projections are that this trend will continue into 2022," said Callum.She said it is difficult to make a general statement about the situation in Maverley as the account of each of customer would have to be examined to determine the exact cause of the high bills.She added: "Some persons have not been paying bills in full each month, so the total amounts now due include balances brought forward over several months; (2) with the installation of the anti-theft network, persons who were partially stealing electricity before are now being billed for the total amount of electricity being used. There is a possibility that some persons are victims of theft from their neighbours."Regarding the female customer who complained of receiving a bill for over $80,000, Callum said a review of her account showed that the customer had not been paying the bills in full since April 2021 causing a balance to brought over on the monthly bills."The meter readings are fairly consistent before and, after the installation of the anti-theft system, with usage ranging from 684 kWh-770 kWh between May and October 2021, with bill amounts ranging from $40,000- $47,000."The customer's usage went up to 998.39 kWh in November, producing a bill of $63,893.82. This went down in December to $54,526.13 with a usage of 745kWh. The current balance of $96,626.06 represents the most recent bill as well as unpaid amounts from previous bills."We recognise that this customer's monthly usage is relatively high, and therefore recommend that she takes serious steps to conserve or transfer to prepaid service. Customers who switch to prepaid have generally paid less for electricity because they are much more careful about how much they use," said Callum.Commenting on another of the residents in Maverley who showed the Observer a bill for more than $40,000, Callum said the JPS was doing further investigation into that account.She said the customer was receiving bills for under 100kWh between January and October 2021. "However, with the new system, the meter has recorded increased usage for November and December of 620kWh and 543kWh, respectively. We will provide an update on this account once the investigation is done."