Edward Bawa, member of the Energy Committee in Parliament, has intimated that the issue of capacity charges has not been treated transparently by authorities in charge.
Speaking on the audit report which shows some debt accumulated by ECG,;he indicated that the lack of transparency is not aiding stakeholders to know where the country currently stands with these charges.
“The issue of capacity charges has not been treated transparently in the country and so we are unable to state how much it is costing us.”
Edward Bawa
He said the Finance Minister was untruthful to Parliament about the capacity charges. He indicated that the Independent Power Producers came out to state that;the figures that were quoted were figures that were quoted for power use and not for capacity charges.
“And so, it tells us that, there is some level of lack of transparency in the capacity charges. And I say this for obvious reasons.”
Edward Bawa
ECG and Energy ministry figures differ
Touching on the losses accumulated by the ECG, Mr. Bawa indicated that the figures quoted by the ECG and that of the Energy Ministry differ.
He said the PURC has given ECG;a benchmark where they are not to exceed 21 per cent capacity charges otherwise they will have to bear the consequences.
“They tell you that there is allowable loses of 21 percent,;they give a different one for GRIDCo and a different one for ECG. So, it means that anything beyond 21 per cent ECG must find a way of dealing with them.”
Edward Bawa
He stated that if these reasons are looked at and compared to the current debt accumulated by the ECG,;ECG would collapsed if it were to be a private firm.
He averred that over the years,;there’s been attempts to aid ECG with their losses through the prepaid meter due to the public and some state agencies refusal to pay their bills.
Also speaking on the issue, Mr. Kojo Poku, an Energy Analyst stated that the debt accumulated is added as tariffs for citizens to pay. He therefore questioned how after all the tariffs the ECG still has debt.
Auditor General’s Report
The 2020 Auditor-General’s Report on the audit of statutory boards and corporations,;has indicated that, ECG lost 2,649.08 GWh, which represents 24.30% of power purchased from the power-producing companies, to system losses.
The report advised management to determine losses;that are due to technical and commercial challenges to help deploy measures to reduce those losses.
The report also noted that ECG incurred expenses to the tune of ¢182,576,235.15 as capacity charge by Cenit Energy for the 12 months in 2018.
According to the report also,;ECG between 2014 and 2016, procured prepaid meters and conductors worth ¢59million,;but the machines are still locked up in the company’s warehouse.
ECG procured the 265 meters and conductors but at the time of the auditing in 2019, the meters have not been deployed.
The Auditor-General then recommended that;the management of ECG should ensure that the prepayment meters and conductors are issued out to users.
However,;if they fail to do so the amount involved should be recovered from the officers who engaged in the procurement.
