The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which is now the interim operator in charge of management and operation of electricity sales under the license number EC/ESL/02-19-001, and the suspended Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Limited have agreed on interim operational modalities.
The move is to ensure that there is no disruption of power supply and service delivery to consumers.
A statement jointly issued by ECG and PDS Thursday said: “This interim arrangement shall be in force from 8th of August, 2019, until the reversal or otherwise by the Energy Commission.
Per the release, Power Distribution Services will be responsible for meter reading, billing, distribution of bills, bill reconciliation, revenue collection, and new service connections.
PDS will also undertake disconnection exercises, replacement of faulty meters and networks, repair works as well as attend to complaints and fault reporting to the call centres.
“In light of the above, all payments and other related activities shall continue to take place at PDS Regional and District offices, PDS existing Customer Service Centres, PDS licensed vending stations, PDS operated Cash Points and banks,” the statement added.
“ECG and PDS assure the general public that we will continue to provide quality electricity services to our cherished customers.”
“All enquiries should be directed to PDS Call Centre number 0302611611 and all social media handles,” the statement concluded.
The Electricity Company of Ghana, acting on behalf of the Government of Ghana, signed a concession agreement with the Power Distribution Services Ghana Limited on March 1, 2019.
The move was in line with Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Power Compact II, which required private sector participation in the West African country’s power distribution business.
However, barely five months of operations, the Government of Ghana, through the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, announced the suspension of PDS.
In a statement, government said the suspension was as a result of what it described as ‘fundamental and material breaches of PDS’ obligation in the provision of Payment Securities for the transaction’ which were discovered upon further due diligence.
The statement said a full-scale enquiry into the power concession agreement with PDS Ghana Limited had begun and was expected to last for 30 days.
The statement also said the government had taken steps to ensure that distribution, billing and payment services were not interrupted, and assured the public that the development would in no way interfere with the distribution of electricity services to customers.
Ghana’s electricity regulator, Energy Commission, last week, withdrew EC/ESL/ 02-19-001 license, which the Commission issued to PDS, following the transfer and appointed ECG as the interim operator of the electricity retail sales function in the southern zone under license number EC/ESL/02-19-001.
The Commission explained that its decision was based on the validity of the said license becoming impaired due to the suspension of the operation of Power Distribution Services (Ghana) Limited over some breaches in the concession agreement signed with the Government of Ghana.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com