-Says for effective operations
The Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) is expected to launch a regulatory database system. The Managing Director of LERC, Augustus V. Goanue on Monday, March 25, 2024, made the disclosure.
Mr. Goanue said the regulatory database system is intended to collect information, keep, and retrieve based on what they need, and filter to get out information. According to him, the database is a system they are putting into place to rely on collected data from license operators to carry on decisions and other things.
“This has been done manually but what we are doing now with support from the African Development Bank (ADB) we are setting up this system which is automated and it will have three components, the regulator, the operator which is the service provider, and consumer components. Those three aspects of the data regulator system will enable us to interact with everyone and will be linked to our website, and mobile app where you will be able to communicate and collect information from consumers, and service providers in terms of complaints, and everything and also our internal processes,” he said.
The LERC Boss also said that the system is also a business process adding that “we are just automating our system to be more effective, efficient in reaching out to our different stakeholders”.
Speaking further, he said the system has the customer, service provider, and regulator potter so if any consumer or customer has a complaint they don’t need to come and fill in a form but with the system, they can just use the mobile app or go on the website to place their complaint to the regulator and the regulator can receive the complaint instantly and begin to work on it.
“You can complain online, right after the launch of this system. It has three components, the regulator for our processes, the customer’s aspect where you can log in your information and whatever complaint you have regardless of the category we will know what complain it is, and the service provider aspect where LEC will be able to log in and put in their information and submit their quarterly report, data and whatever reports,” Mr. Goanue said.
Mr. Goanue mentioned that the LERC relies on important data to process a lot of different things and come out with reports which have been done manually but the automated regulatory system will be effective in responding to different issues.
He highlighted that before if a customer or consumer submitted a complaint manually it took five days for them to resolve the matter but with the new system, the complaint will register straight into the system and the operator will receive it immediately but can’t act on it base on their regulation the complaint starts with the service provider.
Meanwhile, he revealed that when LERC started first there was nothing on the books and they started to write the regulations.
“There was no regulatory instrument, with the 15 regulations instrument we have nine regulations and six codes. We started to roll them out and we realized that it was not okay so with the support of the African Development Bank they brought this automated database system,” he asserted.
Speaking on the launch of the program, he said Vice President Jeremiah Koung will be the keynote speaker and chief launcher of the program which is on Wednesday, 27th, March at the EJS Ministerial Complex.
“We have invited all stakeholders including the Minister of Mines and Energy, Ministry of Finance, and all developing partners. We will also be receiving guests from the ADB and all those in the energy sector. Our regional regulator represented which is the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) will be in attendance. The launch is structured in such a way that it will comprise a of series media engagements, and an indoor program with statements coming from our partners. We will have a live demonstration on this whole system on how it works,” he noted.
The LERC is an independent regulator of the electricity sector of Liberia which was established in 2015 by an act of the Legislation. The key function is to regulate the sector and ensure that it is the referee between the consumer and the service provider and operators.
The LERC licenses and license operators as well as also sets standards, and approve tariffs which is the amount you pay to the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) to provide current.
“We also settle disputes between consumer and the regulator as well as the service providers and other activities in terms of code, standards, and monitoring the system. For regulation, we have four regulated entities in the country that are registered, licensed, and have permits by the LERC,” Mr. Goanue said.
When we did our census in 2019 with the help of the deform NCAL we had close to 400 operators which are more informal (community current operators) but as LEC expands some of them naturally disappear into thin air. We have jungle energy power in Nimba and Bong Counties and Lib Energy in Maryland, River Gee, Grand Gedeh, and Tapita, Nimba Counties as well as Totota Electric Corporation. They are all Liberian own except for Lib that is join with a Liberian company.”
He continued, “The law doesn’t ban foreign companies from operating in Liberia but you have to meet all of the requirements in terms of business registration before you can now operate there is no restriction for foreign company operation in the electricity market. We did a tariff that was approved in December 2021 and took effect in January 2022 which is the fixed charge. We have been on this and we are expected to come out with a clear explanation to inform the public. The fixed charge is a one-time payment which is USD2.48 cents which payment you make every month. For instance, if you buy about four tokens in a month. The first payment you make in a month is for that month any subsequent payment in that month you stop paying. When you go to make your purchase, they don’t take the physical cash, we take an equivalent of the kilowatt hour because you are prepaying. They insist that education on the LEC tariff be a continuous process. It’s been ongoing but the level and scope should be increased so that everyone can get to know and that is why we are talking about this launch and the system we are working on is going to be the solution to this problem”.
By: Leila B. Gbati
