The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission has summoned the Electricity Company of Ghana over widespread complaints of unusually rapid depletion of prepaid electricity credits, particularly after the rollout of new smart meters.
The summons follows public outcry and a seven-day ultimatum issued by the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, through sector minister John Jinapor, directing ECG to present a detailed report on the matter.
Speaking on Morning Starr on Starr FM, ECG’s General Manager in charge of External Communications, Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku, said the company does not determine tariffs and pointed to several possible causes of the problem:
“When you have very high energy consuming appliances such as electric cooker, washing machines, deep fryers, irons, water heaters, hand dryers and other gadgets or equipment, it could also affect your consumption. The other point has to do with bad wiring and earthing, AC issues”, he said.
Mr Ayiku continued ,”So, it could also be that probably you have an issue with the meter. There have been occasions where some customers are not even aware that their neighbours have tapped into their meters. These things are there and then if your meter develops a fault, it could also result in some of these things.”
Dr Ayiku said investigations into the complaints had begun even before the minister’s directive and assured that ECG would comply with the seven-day deadline.
“The investigation began even before the directive from the Ministry. We are already on the ground and we are engaging with all of our customers. When this came in, it’s just an addition to our duty as a company and we are doing that. We’ve complied and we are going to submit the report to the Ministry.”
Meanwhile, Director of Research and Corporate Affairs at PURC, Eric Kofi Obutey, said the Commission has formally written to ECG to explain the situation.
“Verbally ECG says there’s nothing going on in their metering system but we formally wrote to them to come to the Commission and explain exactly what is going on in their metering system.
Meanwhile, we have also deployed officers to the field to collect data on exactly what is going on.”
PURC is expected to provide further updates after its meeting with ECG later today.
