The Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) is yet to record profit as monthly expenditure outweighs revenue, the Acting Deputy Director Dr Henry Saccoi disclosed last week. The state-owned enterprise responsible for distributing electricity across the country increased its monthly revenue from Le8.5 billion to Le15 billion. Monthly expenditure however has also increased from Le10 billion exceeding the Le15 billion generated, Dr. Saccoi said.
As part of the privatization process to unbundle the electricity sector, the National Power Authority (NPA) was divided into two separate enterprises, the Electricity Generating and Transmission Company (EGTC) and EDSA. EDSA buys electricity from EGTC and other Independent Power Providers (IPPs) like AGGREKO and the US Diversify in Bo. These IPPs provide the service on a cost recovery basis but EDSA has to purchase fuel for them, which is done mostly on a weekly basis, Dr. Saccoi said.
Administrative cost is another area of expenditure even without generating revenue. They have to run the Authority and pay salaries. Also, the Authority has to replace transformers when they are faulty and do network maintenance, he said.
Dr Saccoi further disclosed that EDSA is a public utility and therefore it is their mandate to provide service for the people as access to light is a right and no longer a privilege. The EDSA Deputy DG disclosed that since government is one of their debtors, and collecting monies from government takes a lot of time, they have decided to install pre-paid meters in different government buildings instead of the post-paid.
EDSA is working to balance revenue and expenditure to ensure electricity is available in many communities, Dr. Saccoi said.
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