The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) made a loss of GHc76 million as at September 2018, the manager in charge of market operation Kofi Owiredu has disclosed.
He made the declaration at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) open forum for power generators, suppliers and other stakeholders to make a case for tariff review.
Mr. Owiredu mentioned the company embarked on series of projects but incurred losses along the way making some of their financiers to hold back finance which stalled already started projects and forced them to defer some maintenance works as well as be unable to pay the compensation to locals whose lands or property was taken for right of way.
He mentioned investments from 2016 to 2018 in power transmission lines to enhance transmission capacity, network, bulk supply points, primary sub-stations, interconnectivity stations has made their system robust adding there are plans to expand its facilities this year to boost productivity.
The PURC is set to announce new tariffs before next month hence the opportunity given the stakeholders where GRIDCo asked for a 95 percent upward review to cover cost of running its expensive installations and to ensure efficient delivery.
The Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) asked for a near 40 percent upward tariff adjustment to meet hike in distribution charges. The Manager in charge of Billing and Revenue of NEDCo, Mr Thompson Agalab, said the company was making losses as it recorded GHc230 million in 2018 due to inadequate revenue from the 2015 approved tariffs.
Meanwhile Ishmael Agyekumhene, the Chairman of the PURC technical subcommittee maintains the public regulator will settle on tariffs which are fair to consumers as well as the power generators and distributers.
The utility companies who attended the meeting include the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), Enclave Power Company Limited, a Ghanaian-owned private power distribution company, Ghana Water Company Limited and Power Distribution Services Limited (PDS), which is taking over the ECG.
The new tariff will take effect from February 1, 2019.
By Michael Eli Dokosi
