Barely less than one week after the United States of America (USA) pulled out from its earlier pledged $190m support for Ghanaian electricity sector development following the revocation of Discos concessions, the government has snubbed the pullout and went ahead to appoint ECG as Operator of both the Electricity Distribution Licence No. EC/EDL/02-19-002 and Electricity Retail Sale Licence No. EC/ESL/02-19-002 within the Southern Distribution Zone.
Recall that the Electricity Brokerage Licence No. EC/EBL/02-19-001 issued to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to enable it sell electricity in bulk to Power Distribution Service (PDS) and other bulk consumers outside the Southern Distribution Zone has been cancelled.
In a statement issued by the Board of the Energy Commission, it said PDS and ECG were to facilitate a smooth transition process to ensure that customers were not adversely affected.
It said the Commission, therefore informs the public that based on communication from ECG, the Demand Guarantees submitted by PDS to ECG in respect of the Lease and Assignment Agreement (LAA) between the two companies were null and void.
Government said as a result, the ECG has terminated the said LAA as well as the Bulk Supply Agreement in accordance with Article 2, Section 2 (6) (c) and Article 5, Section 5 (9) (b) of the LAA.
The statement added that “The Commission in accordance with the provisions of Section 19 of the Energy Commission Act, 1997 (Act 541), has cancelled the Electricity Distribution Licence No. EC/EDL/02-19001 and the Electricity Sale Licence No. EC/ESL/02-19-001 issued to PDS with effect from 23rd October, 2019.”