PURC and ECG working on prepaid complaints by customers

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has said it is keenly investigating complaints of challenges being experienced by ECG Pre-paid customers nationwide.
In a Press Statement issued by the regulator said: “It has
come to the notice of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURL),
complaints from a number of prepayment meter customers within the Electricity
Company of Ghana (ECG) operational areas on irregularities they are facing in
vending for power, the statement signed by the Executive Secretary, Mami Dufie
Ofori said.
The PURC however assured that it will take the appropriate
regulatory actions when investigations are completed.
“The Commission reiterates its commitment in protecting the
interest of consumers and utility service providers with the aim of achieving
quality utility service.”
The challenges are cropping up at a time when the need for
reliable and consistent power- supply is paramount.
The regulator’s intervention comes after the Institute for
Energy Security (IES) calls for ECG to fix challenges being experienced by
pre-paid customers nationwide.
However, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has said its
metering systems do not have a feature that converts electricity credit to
debits.
The response comes after the Institute of Energy Security
(IES) in a statement raised concerns of recent widespread challenges being
experienced by pre-paid customers of ECG.
“These customers who have pre-financed the use of
electricity at a later time are having their electricity credits being
converted to debits. That the more a customer buys power to be used, the more
that customer owes the ECG – resulting in many homes and workplaces being
disconnected,” the IES earlier said.
But in a reaction to the reports, Managing Director of the
ECG, Kwame Agyeman-Budu in a statement assured affected customers that the
power distribution company was in no way disenfranchising its customers.
“There is no feature in the prepayment systems that converts
electricity credit to debt, nor is there a facility where the more a customer
buys electricity, that customer will owe ECG. Generally, with ECG prepaid
meters, money is deposited into a meter account and dispensed with an approved
tariff till it is finished, then the meter disconnects electricity supply till
another deposit is made,” the ECG explained.
“In some minimal cases, the meter breaker stays connected
and the meter continues to record the customer's consumption on a zero balance,
and this can lead to a debt,” the statement added.
The power distribution company noted, “A team of technical
staff have been deployed to upgrade the communication network between the
prepaid meters and the server, and this has resulted in the increasing debts of
customers whose meters have been operating on credit mode, and as such have not
made any commensurate purchases of electricity used over the months”
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