The residents of Torit town in Eastern Equatoria State have criticised the Triple-A Power Company for slashing down power supply hours.

The residents also accused the company of increasing the electricity bill, which they claimed now subjects them to the same costs incurred by those depending on generators.

Suiliman Husein, who is one of the power consumers in Torit town, said, “This is not good because the reduction in time also reduces money as well. We need the power to work twenty-four hours.”

David Baraka, another consumer, said he was concerned about the increase in the electricity bill, which was in no way connected to the hours of its supply.

“The issue of reducing the time or the hours of power is not a bad thing if they could reduce the amount of money. We are crying for those people to reduce the prices, “said Baraka.

Dr. Alfred Olunya, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, admitted the reduction in the operation hours and the increment of electricity bill increment but attributed it to the ballooning cost of fuel.

“We had a lot of discussions on what to do.  We did it because the company was running on serious losses, “he said.

“We had two options either to double the price of electricity or continue the running of the company,” Dr. Olunya said.

He said several clients complained that they could double the price, and they came to a compromise to reserve some fuel.

“We need to continue operating. So instead of doubling the price, we increased it by 40 percent, reaching a range of 65 percent for some people and 70 percent for others.

“We had to come to that purpose, we cut one hour and we increased the thing by less than 100 percent because fuel price has doubled since the time we started operating,” he explained.

Dr. Olunya called on the government to supply the company with electric poles to enable them to more residents to the grid.

Recently, Torit Municipal Council pledged to work together with the company to ensure all areas have power.

Currently, the company is supplying power to 300 households and shops.

Triple-A Power Plant was launched by Torit Municipal Council in June 2021 to serve the population with electricity.

The electricity was expected to gradually cover areas of Torit markets, some offices, and residential areas.

However, the company says, it only takes less time to have the whole town connected only if the state government provides the electric poles.