ECG Still Incurs Huge Losses

The Sectional Manager of Metering Services at the Customer Services Directorate of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mrs. Sariel A. Etwire, has disclosed that the state-owned electricity power distribution company is still running at a huge loss. The loss, the Engineer said has arisen from activities such as the illegal tempering of meter, meter bypass, direct connection, unauthorized meter transfers, illegal network extensions, illegal self-reconnections, illegal distribution of service and the maintenance of streetlights. �The potential link, damage of meter, use of sugar-use of magnet/magnetic field are also some of the tactics adopted by some unscrupulous Ghanaians to temp electricity meters in the country, �she averred. All these, according to Mrs. Etwire, have led to the state-owned institution incurring more than a 23 percent benchmark loss from 2008 to 2014. Addressing the media at a one-day workshop on the electricity metering system and process, Mrs. Etwire noted that the situation was posing immense financial difficulties to the company and, therefore, called on media to help in that direction. The event which brought together journalists from print and electronic media was also aimed at equipping the media to understand and appreciate issues of electricity metering in the country. Flanked by the Managing Director of ECG, Mr. William Hutton-Mensah, Mrs. Etwire mentioned that the company�s system trend losses from the year 2008 to 2013 was at a total GH� 42301.14, whiles the sales from the same duration stood at GH�31646.89, a development she described �as a canker and must be resolved.� According to her, the company detected and collected only GH� 5,673,879 from the illegalities in 2011, GH� 9,028,680 in 2012, GH� 11,874,102 in 2013 and GH� 3,303,437 in 2014. She noted that the calculations of losses are derived from total Bulk Supply Point (BSP) purchases as against total sales (bills) figure for all consumers. According to her, limited scientific segregation of technical and commercial losses, regional loss figure calculated with some assumptions has led to a very limited means of identifying sources of commercial losses. She however added that limited means of checking whether loss figures have reduced after an intervention in some areas. For his part, Managing Director of ECG, Hughton Mensah noted the company will in the next few months introduce new meters which will enable them effectively to monitor the devices to curb tempering by some customers. According to him, the new meters would also help them arrest the issues of theft in the system to help it further reduce losses. He said his outfit is keen on ensuring that electricity customers have the best quality.