ECG wants gov’t to increase power tariffs by 38%

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) wants Parliament to approve its proposed increase in end-user tariffs of at least 37.6 percent.

This was revealed by the Chairman of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi. He was responding to allegations by the minority in Parliament that an unauthorized increase in tariffs has been affected since the middle of this year.

Mr Gyamfi explained that ECG wants a tariff increase that will cover the losses it is incurring from selling electricity at 42.89 pesewas per kilowatt hour when it is buying that power from VRA and IPPs at a (weighted) average cost of 59 pesewas per kW/h.

The review process began on October 8 with the PURC inviting utility providers, including power generators such as Volta River Authority and the several Independent Power Producers; transmission company, GRIDCo; and distribution companies, ECG and the Northern Electricity Department to present their proposals for the level of tariffs they want to be imposed for 2019.

This request is just part of the upward pressure on end-user electricity tariffs that will be exerted by companies along the power generation, transmission, and distribution value chain under the ongoing tariff review.

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Inevitably the other key players along the value chain will also demand upward adjustments in the tariffs they charge.

Even though this was expected, Ghana’s business community and households will have to brace themselves to pay an increased amount for utilities especially after they welcome the reduction in electricity which was effective from April this year.

Those reductions saw tariffs payable by businesses reduced by 30 percent, while household consumers have benefitted from a 17.5 percent tariff cut. The special load tariff was reduced by 25 percent while the tariff charged on mines was slashed by 10 percent.