The Revenue Protection Manager at the Tema Regional office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Zita Kyei Gyamfi, has disclosed her outfit is pursuing more than 4,700 people who were found to have engaged in illegal power connections running runs into millions of Ghana cedis.
According to her, the activities of these persons have caused a loss of revenue to the tune of GH¢2,297,797 as at July this year.
Speaking at a press briefing before touring some installations of ECG in the region last week, Mrs. Gyamfi explained that her outfit has so far been able to recover GH¢1.9million out of the GH¢2.3m total figure of losses.
“Because of the good work we are doing, we have been able to identify these people and we are hoping to retrieve all the monies.
“Some of them have started paying, and as I speak with you we have recovered GH¢1,974,493.63 representing 86% of the losses to illegal connection,” she stated.
Zita Kyei Gyamfi mentioned that illegal connections are on the rise in areas such as Ashaiman, Tema Newtown, Atadeka as well as Mobole – a village near Dodowa.
She cautioned the public to desist from the practice, stressing that her outfit is now moving with the police to visit homes for inspection and to arrest those who have tampered with ECG meters as well as engaged in illegal connection.
The Tema Regional General Manager, Joseph Forson, who expressed concern over the illegal connection issue said efforts are being made to intensify operations to deal with those who steal power.
“As we intensify our operations to arrest the thieves, we will not stop hunting for the charlatans in our midst, who the public have always said illegally connect them or illegally sell our meters to them,” he stated.
He begged the public for assistance in volunteering information to the ECG, or police, whenever a purported person from the power company tampers with or illegally sells a meter to them.
New primary sub-station
The tour of the installations took journalists and a team from ECG to a newly-constructed primary sub-station at Tema Meridian.
The US$5million sub-station is expected to receive 33kilovolts of power from the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and convert it into 11kv to feed sub-stations D and A at the harbour area and Tema Development Company (TDC) area respectively.
Emmanuel Appoe, Tema Regional ECG Engineer, said the facility – which has a 40 MVA capacity with each of the two transformers holding 20MVA each – will be interconnected to provide dual power supply to the Tema Community Two area and Tema Harbour enclave.
He explained that when sub-station D is faulty or down, the station can distribute power to the areas affected using the sub-station A and vice versa – thereby reducing the frequency of power outages.
He added that the relays connected at the primary sub-station can detect faults within the system and subsequently issue warnings and commands for rectification.
The engineer noted that the station was constructed within 18 months by two Ghanaian contractors: Jomef Electrical Contractors Ltd. and Komfather Electrical and Contractor Company Limited.