The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Volta Region, has commenced an exercise to clamp down illegal connections by visiting and surcharging customers who engaged in power theft across its operational areas in Volta and Oti Regions.
The exercise, which began on Friday, 29th October saw the ECG monitoring team, led by the General Manager, Mr Emmanuel Lumor visit households, hostels, hotels, cold stores, pubs, restaurants, institutions and surcharge customers caught using stealing power, thereby, depriving the company of the needed revenue.
Speaking to the media after the exercise, the General Manager of ECG in the Volta Region, Mr Emmanuel Lumor indicated that “following the inauguration of the national task force against illegal connection on 14th September 2021, by the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the region has also commenced a special exercise to support the activities of the task force to help the company curb the menace of illegal connections.”
He added that the exercise, which was conducted in all the eleven districts of the region, was to audit the electricity connections and check the integrity of meters and service cables used by customers.
The General Manager further disclosed that “some of the illegalities uncovered during this exercise included meter bypass, unauthorized and direct connections and meter tampering.”
Mr Emmanuel Lumor bemoaned how illegal connections by some customers affected the financial strength of the company and prevents the company from undertaking projects that would inure to the benefits of customers.
“As a company, we have to pay our suppliers like GRIDCO, VRA and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) when we purchase power from them to distribute to our cherished customers, hence, consuming power illegally prevents the company from getting money to pay these key players on the electricity supply-chain,” he said.
According to Mr Lumor, illegal connections affect the distribution system by overloading transformers which eventually lead to the breakdown of transformers and outages.
“When people connect to the national grid illegally, it overloads our transformers and leads to low-voltage and interruption of power supply to our customers.”
He cautioned the general public to do the right thing through prompt payment of bills and desist from illegal acts such as meter bypass as it is a criminal and a dangerous act that can cause fire outbreaks and the loss of lives through electrocution.
Mr Lumor announced that the company has the authority to prosecute persons engaged in such illegal acts within the ECG’s network by an Executive Instrument (EI) 38 of the Appointment of Public Prosecution Instrument (2010).
He called on the general public to help the company in its fight against illegal connections by reporting people who engage in such an act to the nearest ECG office or call the national task force via the telephone number 0551444011.
The financial reward for the whistle-blower, he said “is six per cent commission of any amount we recoup. This is an incentive for anyone who gives us reliable information to unearth any illegality.”
The ECG Volta Regional Office has eleven districts namely: Jasikan, Nkwanta, Dambai, Kpando, Hohoe, Kpeve, Ho, Sogakope, Akatsi, Keta and Denu.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com