GRIDCo loses GH¢280m due to tariff reduction in electricity – CEO
The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) is losing GH¢280 million due to the recent reduction in electricity tariff by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission.
Mr Jonathan Amoako-Baah, Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, who revealed this, said the revenue loss could affect the effective operations of the Company.
Mr Amoako-Baah, said this on Wednesday during a media encounter in Tema as part of activities to mark the company’s 10 years in operations.
He explained that the amount could be used for operation and maintenance issues, payment of compensation, servicing of loans, among others.
“Even though the tariff reduction is significant for customers, it is having a negative effect on our operations”, he stated.
He therefore appealed to the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) to bring the company back to where its revenue was.
The GRIDCo CEO added that “if PURC is not increasing our Transmission Service Charges, they should at least bring us back to where we were to let us work efficiently”.
He added that monies owed them by companies including the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was also negatively affecting their operations.
According to him, they had written letters to those companies informing them to regularize or face disconnection.
He however stated that even though ECG consumes about 70 per cent of the power generated and owes GRIDCo GH¢90 million, disconnecting it from the national grid was not an option as it would affect customers’ consumption.
The company, he said, had registered and obtained a license to operate the Ghana Grid Telecommunications Limited and hoped it would be fully operational within the next two years.
Mr Mark Baah, Director Systems Operation, in a presentation, stated that GRIDCo started operations on August 1, 2008 after it was separated from the Volta River Authority (VRA) with the intention to develop and promote competition in Ghana’s wholesale power market.
Mr Baah added that it inherited 43 substations, and about 4,000km of transmission lines from VRA and now had 68 in number, with more than 5,000km of transmission lines.
He added that it currently used more modern grid through general improvements like installation of SVC and capacitor banks, national system control centre, and fibre capacity.
As part of the anniversary staff of the company would embark on Gridwalk from Aye-mensah in the Greater Accra Region to the Aburi gardens in the Eastern Region on July 21, blood donation exercise and a durbar.
Some students from selected schools in the Tema and Accra Metropolis also participated in an open day were officials of the company took them through its operations.
Source: GNA