ECG improves operations

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

By Edmund Mingle

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says the recent investment injected into its operations is paying off, as its transmission systems records impressive improvement.

According to the company, the injection of new equipment, improvement in its network transmission system and the re-orientation of the staff, have helped to drastically reduce the power outages across the country.

In addition, the company continues to improve its revenue generation, with the distribution of some 580,000 prepaid meters in Accra and Cape Coast, while plans are advanced to extend the distribution of the prepaid meters to other urban areas.

“We are going all out to sustain and improve on the gains made in our operations,” Anthony Gyampo, acting Managing Director of ECG told journalist during an interaction in Accra.

He although the company has achieved success in its operations recently, it was aware that there was more room for improvement, and was therefore taking the necessary measures to provide more satisfactory services to all customers.

At the moment, he said most of the revenue generated by the company, which remains the best power distributor in the West Africa, was being re-invested into its operations, saying “we want to give our customers value for their money.”

He said as a result of the recent investment, new transmission lines and more transformers have been installed to ensure that the transformers are able to accommodate the load on them.

Currently, he said the company was on the verge of extending its new Loss Reduction and Network Improvement System, which was successfully piloted in Teshie in Accra, to other parts of the country.

The system, which is part of the short to medium term plan, ensures that fewer customers are hooked to a power transformer so as for effectively management of the load.

For the medium to long term plan for the management effective management of load so as eradicate power outages caused by faulty transformers, Mr. Gyampo noted that the company was moving towards the secondary automation which involved the installation of a scada system to automatically distribute the load from a faulty transformer to others in good condition.

“This will prevent the power loss to customers on that faulty transformer,” he explained.

In addition, he said the management was in the process of upgrading monitoring systems in their stations to quickly detect faults on transformers and transmission lines around the country.

He noted that they were focusing more on the network transmission improvement, because about 80 per cent of outages were due to faulty transformer which do not take much time to repair, indicating that it would make the response time highly rapid.

The company generated its revenue from government funds, loans and tariffs, but according the Mr. Gyampo, the revenue from tariffs was being adversely affected by illegal power connections.

“Some people have made it their duty to steal power for their businesses, but we continue to step up the fight against illegal connections,” he said.

Touching on measures to address the menace, he said the company was introducing systems to make it more difficult for people to steal electric power.

Among the measure, he said the electric meters have been made in way that it cannot be tampered with, while others are put in lockable enclosures.

Apart from these, he said the company has enhanced its public education against illegal connection, adding that they have instituted award scheme to reward informants who provide tip off to the company about illegal connections.

On debt owed the company, he explained that the company was resorting to various measure, including legal actions, to have debts paid by defaulting customers.

Mr. Gyampo commended the staff, particularly the engineers, for the contribution, which have helped to improve the fortunes of the company, assuring them management would continue provide enhanced remuneration.

“A lot of work has gone into improving our operations, and credit goes to the engineers,” he stressed, and also thanked the government and partners for the continuous support.
END