Page 8 - AfrElec Week 26 2022
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AfrElec POLICY AfrElec
Ghana has cheapest household
electricity costs in West Africa
GHANA GHANA has the cheapest cost of electricity for increases in household tariffs.
households in West Africa, according to a rank- The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is
ing by Global Petrol Price.com, which placed it seeking a 148% increase, from 2019, and Ghana
9th on the continent and 27th globally. Water Company Limited (GWCL) is pushing for
The world average price of electricity is a 334% upward adjustment.
pegged at $0.133 per kilowatt/hour (kWh) for According to Global Petrol Price.com, Sudan
household users and $0.124 per kWh for busi- has the cheapest electricity tariff in Africa and
ness users. In Ghana, the cost of electricity per the world for households, followed by Libya and
kWh for a household is $0.046. Ethiopia.
The rankings come as domestic utility ser-
vice providers in Ghana are pushing for steep
Eskom continues load-shedding,
blames labour protests
SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s state-owned power utility Reuters, and is trying to contain costs as part of
Eskom announced on June 26 that it would con- turnaround efforts under chief executive Andre
tinue with Stage 4 power cuts until June 29 as de Ruyter.
unlawful labour actions at various plants affect In a statement, Eskom said that “unlawful
maintenance work. and unprotected labour action” at a number of
The utility, which has struggled to meet power stations had caused delays in carrying out
power demand for Africa’s most industrialised planned maintenance and repairs. The protests
nation for over a decade, was forced to extend included incidents of intimidation of working
electricity cuts over the weekend as labour pro- employees and blockades on roads leading to
tests linked to deadlocked wage talks disrupted power stations.
operations, Reuters reported. “While exploring possible solutions to unlock
Eskom is suffering some of its worst electric- the deadlock with the unions, Eskom appeals to
ity generation problems in a decade of forced its labour partners and striking employees to
power cuts, known locally as load-shedding. embrace the higher purpose of putting the peo-
The loss-making utility is burdened with a huge ple of South Africa first,” said the company.
debt approaching ZAR400bn ($25.12bn), said
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 26 30•June•2022
