Help SMEs import solar systems for lighting — PURC tells govt
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has called on the government to grant tax incentives to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to encourage them to import solar energy systems for use as an alternative power source.
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That, it said, was necessary to help meet the power needs of small businesses, in view of the load-shedding exercise by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and its adverse effects on SMEs.
The Executive Secretary of the PURC, Mr Samuel Sarpong, made the call at a stakeholders’ meeting on the ongoing load-shedding programme for media practitioners selected from the Northern, Upper East and West regions in Tamale last Monday.
The meeting was to engage the media on how best they could assist to educate the public on the current power crisis.
Solar energy
In line with its advocacy to encourage the government to make solar energy cheaper and affordable, Mr Sarpong said the PURC would engage with the public and various groups such as real estate developers to factor the use of solar energy in residential facilities to help free power for use by industries.
"We are also advocating the use of solar energy in households and hotels for basic lighting and heating to free grid power for industrial use," he said.
Power conservation
Mr Sarpong said another way to help minimise the effect of the power crisis was for the public to conserve power by putting off their light and other electrical gadgets when they were not in use.
"If we are able to conserve energy, it will also delay the additional investment that would be made in the energy sector and also help meet the current shortfall in power generation," Mr Sarpong stated.
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Tariffs
The Director of Public Affairs at the PURC, Nana Yaa Jantuah, for her part, blamed the current load shedding partly on the inability of consumers to pay the right utility tariffs.
She explained that in 2013 the PURC, through the automatic adjustment formula, came out with an increment of 87.9 per cent in utility tariffs but due to agitation from the public and civil society groups, the adjustment was not implemented.
She added that currently consumers of electricity paid about 57 per cent, instead of the 87.90 per cent proposed increment, and that had affected the ability of the utility companies to raise the needed funds to improve on their operations and services.
“If we are to come out of the situation, consumers should be willing to pay the right tariffs,” she said.