ECG to cover more districts with prepaid meters

Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says the company has planned to cover more districts with prepaid metering in order to improve its financial viability.

The company is planning to install more prepaid meters in homes and its operational areas in the Eastern region in 2017.

The Eastern regional Manager of ECG, Engineer Michael Baah in an interview with Ultimate News said, management of ECG are sourcing for funds to procure more prepaid meters to replace the postpaid meters in districts that have not been covered with the new metering system.

Currently, more than 2/3rd of ECG customers in the Eastern region are on postpaid meters inhibiting smooth revenue flow of the company whiles revenue are lost through illegal connections.

The Eastern Regional branch of the ECG through the Loss Control Unit (LCU) has retrieved GH¢ 351,307.51 from customers who engaged in illegal connections, from January to October 2016 alone.

Last year, the company retrieved GH¢485,813.65 through illegalities recorded.

Many communities mostly resist and protest against installation of prepaid meters to replace the postpaid meters which sometimes lead to attacks on ECG officials.

Their protest is premised on the fact that, prepaid meters run faster than the post paid hence not good for the poor.

However, the Eastern regional Manager of ECG Ing.Michael Baah tells Ultimate News, the media will be used to educate the public on the prepaid meters to defuse such bad notions customers have on prepaid meters.