Reduce electricity pricing: Council

By MARK HAIHUIE
THE pricing of electricity should be according to the amount of usage, Manufacturers Council PNG chief executive officer Chey Scovell says.
Scovell, pictured, told The National that industries used a considerable amount of power and were the most compliant in payments which should be the basis for reduced the pricing of electricity.
He said generation rate should be based on usage.
“Generation rates should be based on the usage and consumption and as per most economies around the world, people who buy a million units should get it at a lower price than those that buy one unit,” Scovell said.
“So certainly manufacturers and industries should be paying a significantly reduced rate for their power than a residential user.
“That is a big benefit for the resident as one of the reasons why PNG is expensive in comparison is that industries that need to use a lot of energy to generate things have to pay a considerable amount for it.
“One of the problems is that if you look at the people who pay the money, the commercial users are the ones paying their money to PNG Power.
“If you listen to PNG Power, the Government uses a lot of power (but) doesn’t pay.
“And the residential users represent a smaller percentage and are somewhat compliant.
“And then there are of course the illegal connections.
“That’s why they won’t have that conversation with industry on making it less because if industry got a 30 to 40 per cent rebate, meaning they had that much of discount in price, there would be a large loss in revenue in terms of power usage.”