The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), in its 2023 theme, which is dubbed “Year of Operational Efficiency”, is focused on Engagement, Education, and Enforcement of its Regulations and Legislative Instruments, governing the operations of the Commission and its stakeholders. To this end, the PURC on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, engaged students of the Wesley College of Education (WESCO) in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, on the conditions precedent to a Major and a Minor or Quarterly Tariff Review.
The rationale for this engagement, was to apprise students on how the Commission determines and arrives at its end user tariff decisions.
Participants comprised, final-year students of the College as well as some staff and Lecturers of the College.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, in a speech emphasized the factors that necessitate the various tariff reviews (Major and Quarterly Tariff Reviews) and how best, students of the College, could educate their parents and friends back home, while being ambassadors of the Commission. The Executive Secretary, further explained to participants, the power and water distribution value chain and how electricity was generated, transmitted and distributed. He also took participants through production of water, transmission and distribution.
Dr. Ackah, stressed the need for demand-side management through the use of energy efficiency appliances, thereby promoting energy-saving habits in their various homes and the school.
Mr. Edmund Kwaku Tufour, Principal Manager, of Consumer Services and Monitoring at the PURC, educated participants on the use of the PURC Electricity Consumption Estimator, an App developed by the Commission to help consumers estimate their consumption both in kWh (units) and in monetary terms (cash). He further advised the participants to use energy and their gadgets efficiently since electricity was an expensive commodity.
The Director, Regional Operations and Consumer Services at the Commission, Alhaji Jabaru Abukari, who doubled as Chairman of the program, in his closing remarks, entreated participants to take matters of water and electricity seriously and to educate their parents and friends on the revelations received on water and electricity.
Participants expressed their appreciation to the Commission for the education and thanked Management and staff of the Commission for such an initiative, which gave them the platform to ask questions bothering them on water and electricity.
The other PURC members who accompanied the Executive Secretary on this educational tour include the Director, Research and Corporate Affairs, Dr. Eric Obutey; Director of Finance and Administration, Wallace Duodu; Regional Manager, Ashanti Region, Mr. Francis Baidoo; Deputy Head at the Research and Corporate Affairs Directorate, Charles Jojo Entsi; Administrative Officer at the Executive Secretary Secretariat, Ephraim Atubourah.
