BY: Daniel Orlando | Voltaonlinegh.com |
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has intensified public engagement in tertiary institutions across the country to engage, educate, and enforce laws that govern tariff adjustments and ensure consumers receive satisfactory service from service providers. As part of PURC’s engagement efforts, a lecture session on electricity and water tariff determination was held for tertiary students at Ho Technical University in Ho.
The primary objective of the lecture session was to provide insight and education to students and staff on utility tariffs and energy conservation.
The Executive Secretary, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, stated that the commission has a comprehensive approach to ensure accountability among players in the supply chain. His department has a tariff-setting process that consists of two windows: the Major Tariff Review (MTR) and the Quarterly Tariff Review (QTR) to establish a fair price for services provided to consumers.
Dr. Ackah explained that the Major Tariff Review involves assessing both operational and capital expenditures of the utility companies, which are benchmarked against all regulations and stakeholders’ submissions. Meanwhile, the Quarterly Tariff Review monitors the exchange rate and inflation.
He also engaged students in understanding how power and water supply are produced, transported, and distributed. He stressed the importance of the regulator ensuring an efficient and robust system to address inefficiencies from the service providers.
The students were introduced to the PURC Tariff Reckoner and the PURC Electricity Consumption Estimator (PECE) App, which enables consumers to monitor and calculate consumption rates.
A Senior Lecturer at Ho Technical University, Dr. Richard Akplotsi, expressed his enthusiasm about the Commission’s engagement with students regarding the pricing regime and factors considered in tariff adjustments. He called for a strong collaboration between the university and the commission to conduct more research on how to improve consumer satisfaction with services.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.comÂ
