Samuel Dubik Mahama, the Managing Director of the Energy Company of Ghana (ECG), has disclosed how seasonality and weather affect earnings from the selling of energy.
He claims that every time it rains in any section of the nation, ECG loses over GH¢25 million, since chilly weather tends to reduce consumption.
Mr Mahama made this revelation while discussing the topic “The Big Power Debate: The High Cost of Keeping the Lights On” on JoyNews’ PM Express.
“Before the rainy season set in, ECG was averaging between GH¢40 to GH¢50 million a day. Now any day that you see rain, note that we’re down by GH¢25 million,” he told host Evans Mensah on Monday.
Mr. Mahama said he gets depressed every time he sees rain, pointing out that the nation has been having a long wet season this year.
“We plan all-year round with the same tariff. In certain parts of the world the tariff is not flat. When its cold, it varies from when it is hot and they find a way to balance it out. But we have a tariff that runs all year without considering the down periods.
“So clearly consumption will be less during these periods and definitely revenue collected will not be adequate to cover the shortfalls.
It is about how people live, and how buildings are constructed. With most people, they are comfortable with just the fresh air, they are fine and they are not going to consume a lot because everybody is actually on the path on conservation.”
The Managing Director also spoke about the difficulties in operations caused by inclement weather.
He said that rain makes it harder to collect money since it makes it harder to read meters and do other operational tasks.
He did, however, reassure clients that ECG will finally recover the outstanding monies from them despite these difficulties.
“The truth of the matter is whatever is consumed I’ll still collect it along the line, but that particular day that it has rained, I may be unable to collect monies owed me by customers.”
Ghanaians have recently been through a few power outages, the most recent of which was attributed to a shortage of gas to power facilities in Tema and Takoradi.
The West African Gas Pipeline Company provides gas to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which then supplies the gas to the power plants. The GNPC has cleared itself of any responsibility and blamed ECG for not fulfilling its obligation to settle the debt and pay the West African Gas Pipeline Company for the gas delivery.
