The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) wants to engage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on the reasoning for its request for increased tariffs.

ACEP wants to be sure a tariff increment is the best option for the power distributor given its complaints about finances.

In the midst of the current trend of intermittent power supply, ECG, says it needs an increment in its tariffs to aid its operational activities.

The company mounted a strong defence for its request, but the energy think tank wants further explanations.

“We will be engaging subsequently to see how much they need and whether those demands are justified and whether improving their own systems could be the solution rather than an increment in the tariffs,” its Executive Director, Benjamin Boakye, said.

“If they are able to sell power and raise the needed financing, then they can be able to pay the value chain; GRIDCo and the generators,” he added.

The last increment in electricity tariffs was in October 2019.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) oversaw a 5.94% increment in the tariffs.

It used the automatic adjustment formula to determine the real cost of electricity.

Factors like the Ghana Cedi-US dollar exchange rate, inflation, demand forecast and electricity cost accounted for that increment.

The current proposal will only materialize after approval from the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission.

The Managing Director of the ECG, Kwame Agyeman-Budu, at a public forum on Thursday when the proposal was put forward, said the increment would be critical to his company’s operations.

“In terms of distribution, we need support, because we have to do upgrades to make sure the system is sustainable. We don’t wait till something is broken before we fix it. We need additional funds to upgrade our systems at all times,” he said.