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The Northern Electricity Department (NED) of the Volta River Authority (VRA) was established in 1987 to distribute electricity in the Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions of Ghana as part of VRA’s 161kV transmission grid extension to the northern parts of Ghana. In June 1994, the Government of Ghana (GoG) initiated the Power Sector Reform (PSR) programme aimed at bringing efficiency and managerial effectiveness in the Energy Sector in order to improve service delivery to all consumers. In pursuit of the PSR, VRA Management, in 1997, registered the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) as a wholly owned VRA subsidiary, with a Board of Directors, to take over the operations of NED. In May 2012, VRA Management operationalized NEDCo as a wholly-owned subsidiary. |
NEDCo's current operations extend to the northern parts of Oti, Ashanti and Western North regions as shown on the map. Although NEDCo’s operations cover about 64% of the geographical area of Ghana, the customer density of the operating area is low with access to electricity in the NEDCo operational area put at 65% as at December, 2017 as against about 84% for the whole country. The Ghana Government, in line with its vision of making electricity available to at least, 90% of the population by 2020, has undertaken power extension over the years to new towns and communities that were hitherto not served by NEDCo. Customer population has, therefore, grown at an average rate of about 13% plus per annum from less than 20,000 in 1987 to 888,023 by March, 2019.
NEDCo Mandate/Purpose Statement
In pursuit of its role in the distribution of electricity, the following Vision and Mission Statements have been adopted for NEDCo;
- Vision
To become a self-sustaining electric power distribution company.
- Mission
To supply safe and reliable electricity to homes and businesses in northern Ghana and neighboring countries in a commercially viable manner.
Customer Analysis
NEDCo began its operations in 1987 with a customer population of 17,940 and the numbers have grown steadily over the years and as at March, 2019, the customer population stood at 888,023. Residential customers constitute 81.39% of the total customers; Non-Residential customers constitute 18.60% while the Special Load Tariff (SLT) customers constitute only 0.01%.
Energy consumption has also grown from as low as 60.03GWh in 1990 to 1190 GWh by the end of December, 2017. The 81.39% of the NEDCo customers who are in the Residential category consumed 64.35% of the total 1190 GWh but rather contributed about 42% to the total revenue. The Non-Residential customers constituting about 18.6% of the total customer population, consumed 29.18% of the total NEDCo energy distributed but contributed 52% to the total NEDCo revenue whilst the SLT customers (0.01%) consumed 6.47% of the total billed energy and contributed 6% to the total NEDCo revenue.
NEDCo, therefore, finds itself in a situation where the bulk of its customers are Residential and in the “subsidized” category, i.e. paying tariffs below NEDCo’s average operating cost per unit.