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13.10.2011 General News

ECG Meters Not For Sale

By Michael Donkor - Daily Graphic
ECG Meters Not For Sale
13.10.2011 LISTEN

The Energy Commission has stated that it is criminal for anybody to sell meters of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to consumers.

Consequently, it has asked consumers who have paid for electricity meters to be installed in their houses to make the receipts available to the commission for redress.

Speaking at the launch of this year’s Energy Month in Accra, a member of the Board of the commission, Dr Francis Dakura, said the illegal act was becoming rampant, promising that all efforts would be made to stop the practice.

He explained that the meters were the property of the ECG used to measure the quantity of power consumed by the public and bill them accordingly.

Dr Dakura said it was, therefore, wrong for the meters to be sold to the consumers and appealed to the general public to insist on their rights by refusing to pay for the electricity meters.

Dr Dakura, who is also the Member of Parliament for Jirapa, explained that the Power Month was set aside every year to educate the public on matters concerning electricity in the country.

He said as part of activities for the month, the Energy Commission would meet with electrical contractors in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi to provide them with information on regulations on electrical wiring.

Dr Dakura said another aspect of the planned activities would be a stakeholders and consumers parliament where all the stakeholders including the Volta River Authority(VRA), ECG, GRIDCo, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and the Energy Commission would share one platform with consumers who would be offered an opportunity to speak about their complaints and expectations of the utilities and the regulatory bodies.

He said the Energy Commission would launch an SMS short code where consumers could send their messages and report incidents of outages in their areas and when power was restored for the commission to monitor the performance of the ECG.

Another member of the Board of the commission, Mr Charles Kofi Wayo, said the commission was working hard to ensure that the ECG operated according to rules and regulations and also helping to resolve the intermittent blackouts experienced in some parts of the country.

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