ECG concerned over illegal connection in Tema region

The Tema General Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited, Joseph Mensah Forson, has expressed concern over the impunity with which the public engage in illegal electricity connection in the Tema region, particularly Ashaiman and Tema Manhean.
According to him, ECG will not hesitate to descend heavily on those engaging in illegal electricity connection. The Tema General Manager said this when he interacted with selected journalists as part of media engagement and facility tour at Tema.
The media engagement is to bring the fore challenges and the new technology the ECG is in employing into the national grid in the Tema Region.
According to the presentation residents of the Ashaiman Municipality and Tema Newtown are said to be leading areas where power is most illegally connected in the Tema Region.
Mr. Forson urged all stakeholders including the media to support the government’s efforts to halt the menace, adding that there need for the media support the government to fight illegal power connection in the Tema Region.
Disclosing some of the challenges at a media engagement during the PowerPoint presentation, the Tema Regional Engineer of the Company, Engineer Emmanuel Appoe, said Tema Newtown and Ashaiman are the areas that steal more power in the region.
Mr. Appoe indicated that the Company knew the number of energy units they distribute to those areas and monies accrued from its sale always fell short of expectation.
He noted that some power thieves used sophisticated gadgets to breach prepaid meters adding that after arresting and prosecuting them, they engaged in the same act after some few months.
For her part, the Tema Regional Revenue Protection Manager of the ECG, Zita Kyei-Gyamfi, said Tema Regional Office recovered a total of GH¢870,043.40 power theft in a four-week night monitoring exercise at the Tema North, South and Nungua districts.
Mrs. Kyei-Gyamfi stated that the amount accrued from 601,796 kilowatt per hour of illegal power on prepaid meters of some commercial activities in the three districts.
Mrs. Kyei-Gyamfi said most of the anomalies identified during the exercise included meter bypass, direct connection, meter tampering, and accounts on wrong tariff.