The Electrical energy Firm of Ghana (ECG) between July and August 2024, recorded a income shortfall of over GH¢893,158,654 as a part of upgrading its prepayment metering system in its operational areas.
In response to the corporate, the loss resulted from prospects not paying for the precise quantity of energy consumed, indebtedness and the continuing technique of changing malfunctioning or out of date meters.
The Director of Communications of the ECG, William Boateng has instructed Graphic On-line that there was the necessity to exchange some out of date meters because it was a compulsory train sanctioned by the PURC that it shouldn’t function with any out of date gear and named these being changed to incorporate the BXC, PNX, Ecash 1, 2, 3, 4 and Nuri and BOT meters.
“These are meters which have run their due course. They weren’t working precisely and wanted to get replaced,” he emphasised and harassed that after the alternative was accomplished, the scenario was anticipated to stabilise, thereby bettering the corporate’s income fortunes.
Substitute
Mr Boateng, in an interview with Graphic On-line’s Emmanuel Bonney, stated upon the alternative, prospects with credit score balances on their outdated meters would obtain refunds both remotely or by means of generated tokens which the shopper will manually load onto the meter.
He appealed to all affected prospects to train persistence since their credit score balances shall be transferred to them after the mandatory reconciliations are carried out.
He superior that, there have been different teams of consumers who weren’t buying energy as a result of their meters had been defective.
The ECG Director of Communication indicated that, although these meters are defective or out of date, the corporate’s metering system can nonetheless invoice such prospects primarily based on their consumption historical past.
Mr Boateng stated upon the alternative, prospects who had been discovered to be indebted could be given a cost plan to settle their indebtedness primarily based on their potential to pay.
He additionally added that the Firm’s outdated metering system was being upgraded to a extra superior and automatic system underneath its Loss Discount Venture (LRP). “Owing to this, the outdated metering system was not speaking correctly with their servers,” the ECG Director of Communications stated.
Communication failure
Mr Boateng acknowledged that due to the communication failure, prospects who bought energy weren’t being deducted for the reason that meters transitioned right into a postpaid mode.
He added that when the connection between the servers and the metering system was normalised, the system needed to reconcile the acquisition historical past of consumers as in opposition to the precise energy consumed inside the interval of the break in communication.
Reconciliation
After the reconciliation primarily based on buyer’s consumption historical past, some prospects had been indebted to the corporate and needed to go to their workplaces to settle them. Others additionally had credit score balances which had been refunded.
He famous that prospects who had been indebted had been dissatisfied as a result of of their view they had been buying energy and due to this fact didn’t know they had been indebted to the Firm.
Mr Boateng harassed that such prospects wouldn’t be disconnected from the nationwide grid, somewhat the corporate would give them cost schedule to settle their indebtedness primarily based on the shopper’s potential to pay.
Up to now, he stated, about 935,962 meters could be affected by the upgrading of the prepayment techniques and that to this point, a complete of 488,223 of the outdated meters had been changed underneath the LRP as of July this 12 months and that the train was ongoing.