The Central Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) would invest GH¢82 million in its operations to improve and stabilize power supply in the region.
The Central Regional General Manager of the ECG, Emmanuel Lumor, stated in an interaction with the media last Monday that the funds would be used to provide 200 transformers throughout the region, replace rotten poles, and replace 180,000 non-smart meters and prepaid meters with smart prepaid meters.
He said that smart meters will be deployed in Swedru, Kasoa, Winneba, and Cape Coast.
Mr Lumor stated that the cash will also go towards providing energy to some areas.
He said that over 300,000 postpaid meters in the Central Region would be replaced with prepaid meters.
Switching stations
He stated that ECG will establish switching stations at Twifo Praso and Breman Asikuma to evacuate power to the region from Oda in the Eastern Region, as well as from the Western Region, in the event of a power outage, to maintain a consistent electrical supply.
He claimed that politicians would not be handing out meters in their towns as part of this year’s election campaign, and that the ECG would guarantee that power meters were only delivered by the firm.
He said that beneficiaries of the meters provided by politicians frequently made illegal connections, robbing the corporation of millions of cedis in income.
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He said that others were able to obtain phony meters from other sources for installation, and warned that security agencies will be utilized to track down violators.
Last year, the ECG identified 31,000 bogus meters in the region and recovered over GH¢6 million from their customers.
Mr Lumor encouraged all stakeholders to cooperate in order to eliminate unlawful activities and restore sanity to the ECG’s operations.
Appeal
He urged all stakeholders to assist in tracing and surcharging such users of phony meters, saying that if anybody need meters, they should apply to the ECG and receive them within 10 days.
He claimed the corporation will launch a “no free consumption” campaign to ensure people paid for what they consumed.
Mr Lumor stated that the firm was attempting to reduce outages to a bare minimum, but that certain power failures were beyond their control and originated with other stakeholders throughout the value chain.
