Cost of electricity won't increase amid crisis - PURC

The Public Utility and Regulatory Commission (PURC) has allayed concerns by some consumers that utility tariffs may be increased soon.

It follows calls by the utility companies for an upward adjustment in tariffs, which they argue will enable them to provide improved services.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) made the call at a meeting last Thursday with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy.

However, Director of Public and External Affairs at the PURC, Nana Yaa Jantuah, told Joy News the regulator’s major concentration now is to find ways of mitigating the impact of the current energy crisis on consumers.

She said beyond the load shedding, there are faults in the system which the power distributor, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), must look at and deal with.

“What the PURC is now concerned with is, how do we mitigate the impact of this crisis on small scale businesses, on industry, on residential consumers where power is used for everything?

“Our concentration is to mitigate the impact before we think about tariffs,” she said.