Members of Parliament (MPs) will today, on day two of their extra-ordinary session, deliberate on government’s bill No. 886/PJL/AN governing the electricity sector in the country. The 104-section bill is part of two others presented to MPs at the opener of the first extra-ordinary session of the 8th legislative period at the Hemicycle yesterday April 6.
The bill is meant to right the wrongs of Law No. 98/22/ of December 24, 1998 which falls below standards on encouraging or attracting concrete investment opportunities. It also seeks to meet up with some requirements relating to the scale of industrial projects and their strategic importance to the national economy.
The novelty in the bill, also intended to foster the development of real heavy industry in the sector, is the recognition of the place of renewable energies in the electricity sector. It contains arrangements for connection to power distribution grids and incentives to promote the products, goods and services intended for use in the alternative energy source. It also provides incentives for investors in major industrial projects to offset the financial risk borne and the estimated growth to the national economy as well as provides a status for operators who produce electricity, use it mainly for industrial purposes and makes available to public authorities unutilised surpluses. More so, the bill introduces the possibility of exporting the surplus electric power to countries of the sub-region and reinforces the industrial framework in the electricity sector by specifying the roles of each stakeholder.
The 12-part 104-section bill spells out, besides the general provisions, electricity power utility and safety measures, legal framework for electricity sector activities, common provisions on concessions, special provisions on water storage concessions for electricity generation and rural electrification, renewable energy and energy control. There are also pricing rules, dispute settlement mechanisms, right of way and passage, electricity sector development fund, offences and administrative sanctions as well as transitional provisions.
The Minister of Water and Energy Resources will this Thursday defend the bill before the Production Committee of the National Assembly.
