E/R: Don't share metres for vote – ECG to politicians

The Electricity Company of Ghana has cautioned politicians in the Eastern Region especially parliamentary aspirants to desist from sharing unregistered metres to residents during campaigns and election seasons.

According to management, politicians in their quest to win the support of the people especially those in the remote areas, distribute unregistered and uncalibrated metres.

The Electricity Company of Ghana says such actions create unnecessary confusion between the company and users.The Public Relations Officer of ECG in the Eastern Region speaking to the media in Koforidua, Madam Mary Eshun said such users of illegal metres will be prosecuted.

“Every metre must pass through ECG and that’s the policy. If you have about a thousand metres, all of them must pass through ECG.”“Every metre must pass through ECG so if a metre doesn’t pass through our quarters, it means that it is illegal and every illegality is a crime”.

Madam Mary Eshun further highlighted on the process they go through before metres get to individuals for the ECG to bill properly.“The metres normally come from the Ministry of Energy so once the ministry gives them to us, then ECG will work on them and install them for individuals.

So this is what happens. If such meters don’t pass through our system and you hear people say, they have been using light for about 3yrs or 4yrs without being billed it means that such metres didn’t pass through our system.”

“We have to do some metre reading exercise before our metre readers will be able to detect these for the necessary actions to be taken. But once the person is connected, he must pay the bill and we are working on it.”

ECG to reduce power theft

The Electricity Company of Ghana is seeking to reduce its losses to power theft to the barest minimum in 2020.

A/R tops illegal connections rate

The Strategic Business Unit of the ECG Ashanti Region recorded the highest number of illegal connections during last year’s Christmas festivities.

A report issued by the Revenue Protection Unit of the ECG disclosed that the issue also led to the loss of revenue in which measures have been put in place to recover such monies.The action which was carried out during the festive season, spanned December 21, 2019, to January 7, 2020, covered seven regions within the Southern part of the country.

The ECG Mobile App

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) earlier had launched a new system app called the ECG mobile app to prevent people from engaging in illegal connection, an act that has been on the rise for years in the country.The launch was done yesterday, 18th February 2020 by Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia ECG’s mobile app in Accra.