Management of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) on Tuesday 18th October, 2022 paid a working visit to the Enclave Power Company Limited (EPCL). The purpose of the visit was to engage in a collaborative discourse to understand operations and challenges of EPCL, with the view to shaping and reforming regulatory processes.
The PURC team was led by the Executive Secretary, Dr. Ishmael Ackah; Director-Energy Services and Performance Monitiring, Ing. Frederick Oblitey and Director-Research and Corporate Affairs, Dr. Eric Obutey. The others were Head of Investment Analysis Unit of the Regulatory Economics Directorate, Mrs. Ann Allotey and Head of the Executive Secretary’s Secretariat – Ms. Maame Esi Eshun.
The EPCL team was led by the Managing Director-Mr. Adlai Opoku-Boamah; Regulatory Affairs Manager-Mr. Felix Abban; System Planning and Development Engineer-Mr. Henry Hlorgbey, and other senior staff of the company.
The Executive Secretary of PURC, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, indicated that the Commission will soon commence the quarterly adjustment processes as mandated by the PURC Act, to make existing tariffs reflect changes in the macroeconomic environment. Management of PURC commended Management of EPCL for improvements on some key technical performance indicators, and encouraged the company to keep up it’s good works and to be more efficient in its operations.
Mr. Adlai Opoku-Boamah expressed his appreciation of this positive development and complimented PURC for undertaking the initiative to ensure that, there is constant engagement with the regulated utilities. He informed the team of some developments within the enclave as well as intentions of EPCL to expand and be more efficient. He indicated that the customer base of EPCL over the past decade has increased from 13 to 145 industrial and commercial customers. Additionally, EPCL commissioned its own substation in 2015, which has contributed to attracting major multinational companies into the enclave.
The Managing Director however, enumerated some challenges confronting the company including forex losses and high interest rates on credit facilities, which are usually quoted in USD. He also noted that the increased cost of operations is not commensurate with revenues and that, there has been a dip in electricity demand by some industrial customers within the enclave as a result of increased cost of operations, among others.
He implored the Commission to take cognisance of EPCL’s challenges, and work with the company to collectively address them.