The tariff Ghanaians are paying for electricity consumption, according to a research analyst with the Institute of Energy Security (IES), is simply just too small (meagre) and requires reasonable upward adjustment to sustain the power companies – Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) and the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) in operation.
Fritz Moses says to keep the ECG going, power consumers must accept to pay more. “We are not having enough power and we may get to a point where without additional power we may be unable to meet the entire generation needs of the country.
The plain truth is that the amount of money we pay in the country for the electricity we consume is just extremely small to sustain the operation of the power .”
He identified low electricity tariff and power theft (system losses) as serious challenges that need to be tackled to ensure that Ghanaians would enjoy uninterrupted power supply.
Fritz Moses made a reference to recent power interruptions and said this was the result of the insufficient buffer supply.
This he said was why it was important to move quickly to adjust upwards electricity tariff and to deal with the system losses.
What he failed to mention is the huge indebtedness of some public and private institutions to the power – their piled-up electricity bills.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Pru West, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, recently warned that “dumsor” (frequent power cuts), that led to businesses collapsing, could soon be returning unless the government acted to increase power generation capacity.
The demand for power and consumption is not being matched by the supply capacity and this is what is cause the return of the ‘dumsor’.
There has been complaints from a section of Ghanaians over what appears to be unbearable disruption of electricity supply.
Content created and supplied by: KyeretwienanaOseiBonsu (via Opera
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