Energy Commission to enforce power regulations

August 10,2009
page 3

THE Energy Commission (EC) has directed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Department (NED) to put their operations in order by December 31,2010.
The Commission said it would vigorously ensure that provisions in the Electricity Supply and Distribution (Standards of Performance) Regulations, 2008 (L.I 1935), which comes into effect in 2010, were enforced to ensure that customers enjoyed the best of services.
Failure to satisfy consumers of power with quality services, especially interruption in power supply to consumers, could result in legal action.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr Alfred Ofosu Ahenkorah, told the Daily Graphic that the purpose of regulations under L.I 1935 was to provide performance benchmarks in the distribution and supply of electricity.
That, according to him, would allow customers to sue utility companies, including the ECG and the NED, for damages as a result of interruption of power supply.
Quoting sub-regulation 4(2) of Interruption of Supply under Reliability of Electricity Supply, he said "a supplier of electricity shall ensure that the cumulative electricity interruption for each customer within an operational year does not exceed six periods”, and that in default the supplier could be sued.
Sub-regulation 4(1) of the regulations, according to him, indicated that interruption within an operational year should not exceed (a) forty-eight hours in a metropolitan or municipal area or an industrial estate; 72 hours in a district capital; and 144 hours in rural areas.
The period of an interruption, he indicated, shall be consistent and commence from the time the customer informed the supplier of the interruption and the interruption should exceed eight hours metropolitan or municipal area or industrial estate; 12 hours in a district capital; and 24 hours in rural areas.
He was, however, quick to add that despite the various sub-regulations, an interruption of power supply to a customer in sub-regulations 4(5) shall not be treated as wrongful where the interruption of the supply was as a result of a major fault or damage to an indispensable equipment in the supplier's distribution system.
Mr Ahenkorah further noted that the interruption would not be treated as wrongful when it was as result of planned maintenance, emergency, supply disconnection, load-shedding or safety of supply as permitted under the Electricity Supply and Distribution (Technical Operation) Rules 2005 (L.I.1816).
Nonetheless, he said sub-regulations 6 stipulated that “where a major outage was due to the negligence of the supplier, subregulations 4(5) shall not apply.
In accordance with those regulations, he said, sub-regulations 4(7) states that” a supplier shall pay into the Energy Fund the sum prescribed in the schedule where the supplier is in breach of the supply interruption limits specified in subsequent subregulations”.