69,000 Electricity Meters Disappears, Distributed through Political Influence

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) cannot currently account for more than 69,000 electricity meters believed to have been distributed through political influence. The Ashanti regional ECG Public Relations Manager, Erasmus Kyere-Baidoo complained that the company loses revenue because it is unable to identify and bill such consumers for the power they consume.
He told a forum of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in Kumasi that 25,000 meters went missing in 2014, a loss that nearly doubled in 2015 when at least 44,848 meters could not be accounted for. These meters bypass the company’s system of identification and subsequent billing, Mr. Kyere-Baidoo revealed.
In addition to the political distribution of meters, organized and wide­spread theft of electricity continues to be a longstanding problem crippling the efforts of the ECG despite the deployment of its prepaid metering system. ECG, in the last three and a half years, identified 9,537 illegal electricity connections across the country.
In 2011, the company detected 2,929 illegal connections and was able to recover over ¢5.6 million as revenue to the state. In 2012, the power utility company identified 3,425 illegal connections, out of which over ¢9 million in revenue was recovered.
In 2013, 2,242 were identified, out of which ¢11.8 million revenue was recovered by the state. As of March 2014, ECG had detected 941 illegal connections, recovering ¢3.3 million. ECG meters are strictly not for sale and remains the bona fide property of the Company.
A teacher was arrested in Amasaman in Accra for stealing 35 meters in 2014. He had sold 18 electricity meters for a ¢100 each.
There is renewed public scrutiny of the operations of ECG following weeks of complaints about the billing system of the meters.
The Company has been ordered by the Public Utility and Regulatory Commission (PURC) to suspend the use of a billing software believed to be the cause of high electricity bills and fast vanishing credit.
Meanwhile, another round of erratic power supply has renewed pressure on the government to solve the country’s energy challenge.
The government has announced a near end to the power crisis in February 2016 after bringing on some more independent power producers to augment the supply of power.
With consumers complaining again about the availability of power, the government faces fresh criticisms over its handling of power problems.
An energy think-tank, African Center for Energy Policy believes the current power situation will decide which party will be elected to govern the country in the November 2016 general elections.