ECG Gives A Month Ultimatum To Power Theft Consumers

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has given a one-month ultimatum to all its customers to rectify all anomalies with their meters ahead of an impending audit of all meters leading to the prosecution of culprits.

According to ECG, the move would help to reduce commercial losses once and for all, clean the system of any electrical illegalities as well as help improve the revenue of the company.

The ECG, therefore, called on customers who have not been receiving bills, prepaid customers who do not purchase electricity credit, customers with faulty meters, those who have tempered their meters, and all those engaged in any form of illegality to willingly own up within the one-month moratorium instituted by the company.

According to the power distribution company, any customer caught engaged in illegality after the one-month moratorium would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

Addressing the media in Takoradi, Mr Daniel Anokye Abebrese, the Director of Customer Service of the company, indicated that over the years, the biggest bane of the company has been its losses which militate against its viability of the company.

He contended that generally, losses were inherent in every electricity business all over the world.

“It’s however, the quantum of our losses which is unacceptable. Hence, our efforts to reduce the quantum of commercial losses once and for all by getting rid of all electrical illegalities to improve upon the revenue mobilization,” he added.

He explained that losses in the electricity business were in two components which included technical and commercial losses.

He pointed out that it was the commercial losses that the company had control over and mentioned some of the commercial losses as uncaptured metres.

“This is where customers use metres which are not captured in our system and for that matter, they don’t pay for the electricity they use,” he explained.

He indicated that faulty metres and customers who tampered with metres so that they do not record the true power consumption or pay for the full usage of electricity also accounted for commercial losses.

Mr Abebrese, therefore, indicated that the ECG was encouraging customers with such anomalies on their meters to come out willingly to sort out the issues with their metres from June 7 to July 6, 2022.