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Cote d’Ivoire’s power regulatory body visits Ghana
A delegation from the Autorité Nationale de Régulation du Secteur de l’Electricité (ANARE) of Cote d’Ivoire has paid a working visit to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to understudy how utilities are regulated in Ghana.
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The ANARE was inaugurated last week as an independent legal entity to oversee the electricity sector of Cote d’Ivoire.
The 18-member delegation, led by the Assistant Director in charge of Legal Affairs, Ms Kouadio Bonin Bertine, included representatives of consumer protection associations, civil society organisations (CSOs) and some selected media practitioners.
The visit was to afford officials of ANARE the opportunity to learn how the PURC sets electricity tariffs and determines the various regulatory issues.
The Executive Secretary of PURC, Mr Samuel Sarpong, briefed the delegation and said the PURC was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1997 as a regulator of utilities such as water, electricity and natural gas.
Mandate of PURC
The PURC, Mr Sarpong further explained, also received and investigated complaints from consumers and also settled disputes between consumers and the public utility companies.
“Although the commission could regulate other areas such as the transport sector, such would require the sector ministry in charge of transport to put in a legislation that could empower the PURC to do so,” Mr Sarpong said.
The Director in charge of Regulatory Economics and Research at PURC, Dr Simons Yao Akorli, also took the delegation through the tariff setting processes and the methodology for arriving at the final tariffs.
He said the commission often took into account the amount of revenue the various utility providers needed to deliver a certain level of service to the public.
The General Manager in charge of Business Development at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr Theo Asante-Darko, in a presentation, said the company was still struggling to recover.
Similarly, he said while the company had continued to record some 22.53 per cent system losses, governance issues had made it difficult for the company to recover bills owed it for electricity supply.
Cote d’Ivoire
Ms Bertine, for her part, said because the ANARE was a new agency, there was the need to learn from its counterpart bodies across neighbouring countries that were already regulating the electricity and other sectors.
The delegation, she said, would also visit Cotonou, Dakar, Conakry and Bamako on a similar mission.
