The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) says after its preliminary investigations into the recent erratic power supply, it is ascertaining the liabilities and the possibility of compensation for consumers in recognition of any loss occasioned by the outages.

Speaking on Top Story, Friday, the spokesperson of the PURC stated that a panel has been set up to ensure appropriate compensation is given to customers who were affected.

Bawah Munkaila explained that in the parts of the country where these outages were taking place not every household had been impacted on the same level.

“When you consider the commission's tariff system we have a graduation tariff structure, so when you have all these things the compensation definitely should not be the same.”

“So, we are going to determine the frequency of outages in a neighbourhood and the duration of that particular outage in a particular neighbourhood. So it is not everybody that is going to be compensated at all levels so that is now the work the commission is doing now through a panel.”

This comes after PURC concluded its investigations on the causes of the recent erratic power supply which began earlier this year.

The report established a number of factors that led to the challenges in power supply including technical challenges in the natural gas supply network, new transmission infrastructure being constructed on National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS) and Planned and unplanned maintenance activities on the aspects of the NITS.

Others include reduction in reactive power support in the mid-portion of the country and emergency upgrade and modification works on the NITS to increase reactive power support and improve voltage is in the mid-portion of the country.

My Munkaila told Evans Mensah that the compensation once determined will be paid by the utilities as punishment.

He added that the compensations are usually paid in a form of credit or energy which will be given to customers.

"Currently the secretariat is working without a board, so even if it is done with its findings and appropriate compensation to be paid customers, we still have to wait for a board for the approval to be given before the utilities can be sanctioned to compensate consumers in that regard," he added.

Meanwhile, PURC in its report stated that it is the need for an updated and consolidated generation and transmission
the master plan cannot be overemphasized.

Thus, the Commission would therefore engage all relevant stakeholders to ensure that this is achieved.

"Finally, the Commission calls for capital injection by the shareholders for the speedy execution of their stalled and planned network improvement projects," parts of the report read.