The Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) has intensified its education on tariffs for some of students at the Takoradi Technical University (TTU).
The education centred on topics such as how power generation started, demonstration on how a tariff reckoner is used, electricity consumer estimator – an application that estimates consumers electricity consumption – and monitoring among others.
Also, it created a platform for the students to engage management of PURC in a bid to gain greater understanding of how the Commission arrives at its tariff decisions.
Dr. Ismael Ackah, Executive Secretary of PURC, in an interview with B&FT after the event said: “Our engagement is to explain how electricity tariffs are determined, factors that go into tariff decisions for people to understand and also appreciate the work of the Electricity Company of Ghana and Ghana Water Company.
“We also presented our energy consumption estimator to them as a guide to help them manage electricity consumption, promote efficiency and encourage them to conserve electricity and water,” he added.
He said sensitisation is in response to the need for the Commission to do more in terms of engagement, education and enforcement.
“We realised that though most of them were aware that yes, there is PURC, some of them do not even know what we do apart from the tariffs. We have explained to them that we also have a complaint management process. If you go to ECG and Ghana Water and you don’t get them within a certain time, the PURC is there to support in this direction,” he said.
He emphasised the need for individuals to conserve energy, adding that the PURC is there to promote productive use of electricity.
Emmanuel Sam, Western Regional Commercial Manager-ECG, urged customers not to tamper with their meter when it is faulty.
“Anytime you have challenges, just walk into our office and you will be assigned an officer to go and check your concerns. I am glad the students have gotten to understand our activities better.”
