The Director of Communications of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has revealed that the company incurred serious losses in the last two months due to the upgrading of its prepaid metering system.
William Boateng stated that between July and August 2024, ECG recorded a revenue shortfall of over GH¢893,158,654.
In an interview with Graphic Online, Mr Boateng blamed the loss on customers not paying for the actual amount of power consumed, indebtedness and the on-going process of replacing malfunctioning or obsolete meters.
The Communications Director said the replacement of obsolete meters was a mandatory exercise sanctioned by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).
“These are meters that have run their due course. They were not working accurately and needed to be replaced,” he said.
This, he said, would improve the company’s revenue fortunes once completed.
Since the beginning of the meter changes, hundreds of ECG customers have complained about supposed abnormal increase in energy consumption readings.
But Mr Boateng said customers with credit balances on their old meters would receive refunds either remotely or through generated tokens which the customer will manually load unto the meter after the replacement process.
He urged all affected customers to remain patient, assuring them that their credit balances will be transferred after the necessary reconciliations are completed.
The ECG Director of Communications also noted that there is another group of customers who have not been purchasing power due to faulty meters.
ECG emphasised that, despite these meters being faulty or obsolete, the company’s metering system can still bill these customers based on their consumption history.
Source: Joy News