energy news/local inter alia, was to increase private sector investment and the productivity and profitability of micro, small, medium and large-scale businesses. among the six (6) projects within the 2nd compact is the ecg financial and operational turnaround project (efot), which seeks to introduce a private sector participant into the management and operations of the ecg. consequently, the gog, under the auspices of the millennium development authority, embarked upon a competitive procurement process which resulted in the selection of a partner to manage, op- erate, and invest in ecg’s operations for 20 years. meralco consortium, led by the manila electricity company of philip- pines, which covers a third of the philip- pines and serves a customer population of over six million, was declared winner of the bid on 20th april, 2018. meralco partnered aenergia sa, an angolan company, and three ghanaian companies: tg energy solutions ghana limited, santa power limited and gts power limited - to form the power dis- tribution services ghana ltd. (pds), which is 51% ghanaian-owned as re- quired by the government of ghana. effective march 1, 2019 the conces- sionaire, pds, took over the country’s power scene to strengthen the gover- nance, management and operations of ecg and improve the delivery of power to end users to support socio-economic growth in ghana. pds was to inject about us$580 mil- lion investment into the ecg and its op- erations after the planned takeover to give the country’s power distributor a face-lift and untag it as a major debt- store. the takeover was expected to bring efficiency and improvement in the oper- ations of the power distributor. the com- pany was also to remove leakages and financial losses in the system as well as provide the ecg with the funds it des- perately needed to stabilise the country’s power distribution. ecg vs. pds though pds has taken over distribu- tion of power in the country, there seems to be a lack of clarity on the distinction between the respective roles of the for- mer power distributor and the pds. many ghanaians have the idea that ecg has been sold or taken over the pds after the concession and that the ecg is now defunct. however, ing. boakye-appiah, man- aging director of the ecg has stated on on utilising the company’s fibre optic backbone to venture into utility telco services. “ecg will collect all outstanding monies customers owe to ecg on ecg’s behalf”, mr boakye-appiah emphasised. having diversified its services, the company, according to its managing di- rector, is still exploring other opportuni- ties in the energy sector, especially, by leveraging its fifty years of experience and the huge intellectual capital at its disposal to provide training and consul- tancy services to players in the industry. the ecg training school is the strategic competence development cen- tre of the company, providing technical and non-technical training to serve ecg, vra, gridco, nedco and other utili- ties in the west africa sub-region. it has been accredited by the national accred- itation board for professional and tech- nician examinations (nabp tex). the training programme covers technical areas for organisations within the energy sector, mining, oil exploration and pro- vides in-service training, tailored pro- grammes for organisations, refresher programmes and engineering basics for non-engineers in engineering fields. pds the power distribution services, on the other hand, is currently responsible for electrical network operations, includ- ing regular maintenance, fault repairs, and commercial operations – billing, revenue collection, new services connec- tions and investments, rehabilitation, ex- pansion and network extensions. pds ghana limited, as the power distributor, is to handle and manage on behalf of ecg, all legacy - outstanding is- sues, revenue collection and unpaid bills prior to the transfer date on 1 march 2019. job security contrary to claims of mass unem- ployment of ecg staff after the takeover, the managing director of ecg has de- nied the claims stating that no staff of the company lost his or /her job after the concession agreement, where some staff were transferred from ecg to pds. “in accordance with government’s di- rective, 6,400 staff of ecg were trans- ferred to pds on the same conditions of service as they were enjoying with parent company ecg. similarly, the 112 staff who remain with ecg are also enjoying their existing conditions of service there- fore no staff has lost his or her job.” source: energy ghana the contrary that the company has just let off some of its responsibilities to pds and is concentrating on different opera- tions. “we wish to emphasise that neither ecg’s assets nor its liabilities were trans- ferred to messrs. pds. ecg has retained all the network assets and is also liable for debts incurred prior to the transfer of its operations to pds. “we must emphasise that ecg has not been sold. ecg has not changed to pds. ecg is ecg and pds is pds. they are two different entities playing differ- ent roles in the power sector,” he stressed. ecg’s current operations the ecg is now selling energy in bulk to the pds for which the latter will, in turn, pay for the energy consumed and make lease payments to ecg for using ecg’s networks. “ecg still operates providing value- added services to its numerous clients. ecg still operates as a bulk energy trader and also monitors the perform- ance of pds,” the md noted. ecg is currently into networking, asset ownership and consultancy serv- ices, having turned its training school into a consultancy services provider, ac- cording to its new business model. the new business model of ecg also focuses 10 energyghana.com july 2019