Sierra Leone enacts an amendment of the Electricity Act 2011 to enable the roll out of the roadmap for the reform of the electricity sector
The object of this Bill (approved by the Parliament on December 5th, 2017) is to amend the National Electricity Act, 2011 (Act No. 16 of 2011) to improve the viability of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) and the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) in accordance with the Roadmap for the Reform of the Electricity Sector signed by stakeholders of the Electricity Sector on 7th September 2017 and approved by a Cabinet Decision of 15th November 2017. The Roadmap for the Reform of the Electricity Sector was the result of a large consultation with institutions and utilities of the electricity sector including development financing institutions and bilateral development agencies.
This Bill provides for the creation of revenue collection accounts by EDSA and EGTC under conditions to be established by a statutory instrument of the Ministry of Energy. The purpose of the collection accounts is to exercise a strict control of expenses based on a sector wide budget approach by a Collection Account Committee.
The Bill enables the transfer of assets owned by EDSA and EGTC to third party utilities licenced by the Electricity and Water Regulatory Commission. This amendment intends to enable both EDSA and EGTC to create independent grid that will receive the support of the private sector in order to develop low-cost small-scale generators and develop the customer base.
The Bill also enables the establishment of a class of eligible customers that will be able to directly purchase electricity from all companies licenced to generate electricity under restrictive conditions to be established by a statutory instrument of the Ministry of Energy. This amendment intends to enable large electricity users that are not yet customer of EDSA to develop low-cost large-scale generation capacity in suitable locations (sea border, large hydro site) and to transmit this electricity to the point of use through the national transmission network.
The National Electricity (Amendment) Act 2017 can be found at the following link