The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), as part of its educational drive on July 5, 2023, organized a tariff educational program for a section of students from the University of Ghana (UG).
The Executive Secretary of the PURC, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, in his address, educated UG students on the electricity value chain from generation through transmission to its distribution.
Dr. Ackah further explained the processes through which electricity was procured either through state-owned generators or Independent Power Producers (IPPs), the essence of an economic and Quality of Service regulator (PURC) in the sector, to balance the interests of consumers and the utility service providers.
Discussing the tariff systems, Dr. Ackah indicated that, components such as, Capital investments and expenditures of the utilities, finance and operational cost, Ghana cedi to US-dollar rate, inflation, as well as maintenance cost, were considered in arriving at the revenue requirement, which is a major determinant in the realization of the end-user tariffs.
Explaining the distinction between a Major Tariff Review (MTR) and Quarterly Tariff Review (QTR), Dr. Ackah enumerated the various reasons and variables, which affect and underpin the review of tariffs in the Quarterly Tariff Review (QTR) and the decisions taken by the Commission to arrive at the end-user tariff payable by consumers.
Ing. Fredrick Oblitey, Director for Energy Services and Performance Monitoring, took the students through the newly created PURC Electricity Consumption Estimator, (PECE) an app created by the Commission to help all customer classes to rate the consumption of their gadgets by the number of hours used to arrive at their monthly consumption and total cost.
Alhaji Jabaru Abukari, the Director for Regional Operations and Consumer Services, who was the chairman of the Tariff Education program, advised the student body to use Electricity wisely while encouraging them to spread the information on the PECE to their parents and guardians to help calculate their consumption and cost per items used
He encouraged the students to regularly visit the PURC website to gain Knowledge about Electricity and water systems and Knowledge about the conservation of electricity.
Present at the program were other Directors, Regional Managers and staff of the Greater Accra Regional Office of the PURC.