As part of the campaign embarked on by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to go after monies owed them, 52 customers in the Accra West Region of ECG were found to have engaged in illegal connections.
This, according to the ECG, are customers who are illegally connect to the grid and have refused to pay for the power they used. The result is the retrieval of GH¢750,000.00 worth of 550,000kWh of electricity illegally used by the customers.
ECG’s Revenue Protection Manager for Accra West, Dr Mark Owusu Ansah noted that through the illegal connection, customers are able to use power without contributing to the revenue basket of the company denying them of raising the needed revenue to run the company.
Some of the illegalities included meter bypass, meter tampering and direct connections.
According to Dr Mark Ansah, the arrests were made within the first ten days of the campaign. The aim is to recoup monies owed them as well as check the health of meters it has installed in the area.
As per the records, he added that the customers have illegally used about 550,000kWh of electricity translating to about GHc750,000 (plus taxes and administrative charges) and some actions have already been taken against the people responsible.
“Power to these customers has been disconnected, they have been surcharged for the electricity they used without paying and charged a penalty fee for engaging in the illegalities. Also, depending on the gravity of the offense, we will hand some cases over to the police for prosecution.” he said.
Dr Mark added that the sophistication of the illegal connections shows that the culprits have resolved to not paying for the power they use. He, thus, appreciated the field team who are helping to identify and arrest persons who are engaging in the illegal acts.
The General Manager for the region, Mr Emmanuel Akinie, added that the ECG is investing heavily in technology such as the introduction of smart meters to help in the early identification of customers who engaged in any illegalities.
“We have introduced some smart meter solutions on pilot basis, which give us real-time updates of what is happening on a customer premises. It signals our office once the meter-case is opened, bypassed or tampered with,” he said.
The smart meters, he added, will be rolled out in no time to help the company fight the menace.
The areas under the Accra West region include; Ablekuma, Achimota, Amasaman, Bortianor, Dansoman, Kaneshie, Korle Bu and Nsawam.
NW/DO
Electricity Company of Ghana