The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has cautioned the public against all forms of power theft that disrupt electricity supply.
According to the Company, the rise in such activities, including illegal connections, tends to tarnish its reputation as it strives to become the most reliable power distributor in the country.
Speaking to JoyNews, the ECG Ashanti West Public Relations Officer (PRO), Benjamin Obeng Antwi, expressed concern and cautioned perpetrators to desist from such acts.
“We want the general public to know that the meter belongs to ECG, not the customer. That is why when you check the meter, it is written as the property of the Electricity Company of Ghana.
“So customers who think the meter belongs to them, no please, the meter belongs to ECG. So we are cautioning all customers who have been engaging in illegal transfer of meters.”
Mr Antwi stated that electricity meters are assigned to specific properties, and cannot be transferred from one property to another.
“Let’s say you are staying at Atonsu and you are moving towards Suame, so you want to transfer the meter to Suame.
“No, that is illegal and anytime we get someone we will charge you for you to pay the penalty or hand you over to the authorities,” he said.
The ECG Ashanti West PRO added that if a customer’s service cable that runs from the low voltage pole to their property is stolen, they should first report it to the police and obtain a police extract.
“It’s unbearable for ECG in the sense that when a meter is transferred, you will realise that all the meters have geocoded.
“So the geocodes are what we use to identify the meter. So once we are on our map and we are going, we know this meter is at Atonsu but once we get there, the meter is nowhere to be found.”
“If it’s a bill we are going to give to that customer, we don’t know where the person is. If we are doing our monitoring to check the integrity of the meter, we wouldn’t know where the meter is because the person has moved the meter.
“So it affects our financial health as well because the person can move and be consuming power on our blind side,” Mr Antwi added.