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The Electricity Company of Ghana in the Central Region has recovered an amount of GH₵145,735.69 from defaulting customers in the Kasoa North District.

The amount was realized as a result of a revenue mobilization exercise in collaboration with the company’s Revenue Protection Unit which covered Papase, Ofankor, Ashalaja, and Tipper Junction.

Speaking to Kasoa based Pink FM, the Revenue Protection Manager, Mr. Kow Ampah said “this exercise commenced a fortnight ago as part of efforts to vigorously improve revenue mobilization and data cleaning. It also syncs with the vision of the Managing Director, Mr. Kwame Agyeman-Budu, to drastically clamp down on illegal connections.”  

He further explained that 121 accounts were disconnected out of a total of 172 customers visited. On power theft, he recounted that 7 customers were involved in illegal connections such as meter bypass and direct connections. It is estimated that 12,600kWh of electricity has to be recovered to account for the loss incurred. The culprits have therefore been surcharged an amount equivalent to the electricity stolen.

The Regional General Manager, Ing. Ebenezer Ghunney bemoaned that customers who engage in illegal connections deprive the company of the revenue needed to cover energy purchases and undertake projects to improve service delivery.

He added that customers who are caught engaging in illegal connections will be made to face the full rigor of the law.

Mr. Samuel Techie-Menson, District Manager for Kasoa North advised the public to take advantage of the 6 percent reward for informants on amounts recovered when power theft is reported and to help reduce system losses.

Eastern Region Operation

Again, the same exercise of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG)in the Eastern Region has retrieved about GH₡949,000.00 from detected illegal connections in the Region last year.

The amount represents penalties and surcharges slapped on customers who were caught using electricity illegally in the year 2019.

Speaking to the media in Koforidua yesterday, the Acting Revenue Protection Manager, Mr. Sylvester Ofosu Amankwaah, stated that customers who were caught engaging in illegal connections in the region include Hotel Operators, restaurants owners, cold store operators, drinking pubs owners, individuals, and some Media houses.

He explained that the types of illegal connections detected include; Meter tampering, Meter By-pass, illegal self-reconnection, and indirect connection.

According to Mr. Ofosu Amankwaah, the Revenue Protection Unit of the ECG in the region on their monitoring exercise visited 4,014 meters last year and detected 16 unauthorized service connections, two illegal direct connections, 29 meters tampered, 176 faulty meters and 111 meters on wrong tariff class. “Meters that were identified to be on wrong tariff classes were corrected and the identified faulty meters replaced”, he added.  

Mr. Ofosu Amankwaah stated that through the monitoring exercise, ECG was able to recover about 1,196,681KWh units of electricity which were lost through illegal connections and that the total units recovered translated into GH₡1,203,878 of which an amount of GH₡949,116 has been retrieved from customers.

The Regional General Manager of ECG, Ing. Michael Baah stated that the Eastern Regional Office of ECG has initiated a series of revenue protection activities aimed at unearthing illegalities in the system and reducing power losses due to power theft. "If we are able to reduce commercial losses, we could achieve the system losses benchmark of 20 percent by the end of the year 2020”, he said.

Ing. Michael Baah stated that it is a crime to steal power and that customers who are caught in such acts would be prosecuted. "Anyone found culpable of illegal connection will face the law” he added. 

He, therefore, cautioned customers to desist from illegal connections and endeavor to pay their bills. 

He also encouraged members of the general public to voluntarily report any suspected illegal connection to the nearest ECG office and said: “EG will reward informants of illegal connection”.