Energy consumers to choose their own suppliers by 2023 - Energy Commission

The Energy Commission has disclosed that electricity consumers will be allowed to choose their own suppliers by 2023.

The Commission said this is part of measures put in place to stop the monopoly in the power supply subsector.

Per the new arrangement, smaller private entities will be given the license to distribute power regardless of the meter they use.

The current system permits consumers to purchase power from only the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission, Ofosu Ahenkorah said they are putting measures in place to make the power distribution subsector more efficient.

“If you have multiple buyers and sellers then you create competition. We have lowered the bulk customer classification for much smaller entities to go into the bulk power market. So in five years’ time, every household can choose its supplier.”

Currently, 81 per cent households have electricity with 84 per cent communities connected.

This means the country can enjoy a 100 per cent accessibility to power only if the existing generation capacity is expanded and more private sector investments are attracted to fund the expansion.

The sector has been undergoing some reforms for the past 20 years now to address these challenges.

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When the reforms are done, the power sector would have more generators and distributors who will compete to supply both large, medium and small final consumers.

But Industrial and Energy Consultant, Andrew Quayson says the high cost of power must be first addressed.

“To me, that is not the first priority. The first priority is to make sure that the system is efficient. How do we reduce the cost of production?”

“We have hydro which is relatively cheaper. We have thermal. The generation units should be combined so they can use gas for production. We have realized that in the northern region collection is 60 percent. So we need to improve the collection rate. The other one is commercial and technical losses,” he added.