Defaulters are pursued by the ECG National Revenue Protection Taskforce.
The Electricity Firm of Ghana (ECG) has increased its efforts to deal with illegal power consumers, recover what they owe the company, and pursue legal action if necessary.
In order to uncover unlawful connections in all ECG operational areas, they have organized a National Revenue Protection Taskforce directed by a Coordinator from the Ministry of Energy.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Ms Sakyiwaa Mensah, ECG Tema Region Public Relations Officer, said the task force was tasked with collecting all arrears owing to the business.
"All ECG consumers and public institutions, including State-Owned Enterprises, would be disconnected by the taskforce as long as their bills remain in arrears," she stated, citing PURC laws.
She stated that the ECG reserved the right to publish the identities of clients who were behind on their bills, and that customers should pay their bills to prevent shame.
Customers are asked to check the identification cards of anyone or group of people posing as ECG task force personnel and to fully comply with officials in the national interest.
Ms Mensah urged the public to report any illegal connection to the local ECG office or phone the task force at +233551444011 to be eligible for an informant reward of 6% of the surcharge amount if the crime is confirmed.
She stated that the informants' identities will be kept totally private.
Meanwhile, Mr. Emmanuel Appoe, Tema Regional ECG Engineer, stated that ECG, Tema Region, had invested a total of GHC989,800.00 in five key projects to increase the reliability of power supply to customers within its operational zones.
He said GHC142,141.92 of the whole amount was spent on upgrading undersized conductors serving Tema Community 8 and its vicinity.
Tema, Nungua, Prampram, Afienya, Ashaiman, Ada, and Krobo districts are covered by the Tema Regional Office.
Mr Appoe told the Ghana News Agency that the project would be completed in the first half of 2021 and would entail the installation of links between two of their main overhead sub-transmissions to benefit Tema Communities 5 and 11 as well as parts of Community 6.
Mr. Appoe, the Acting General Manager of ECG Tema, explained that the link's structure allowed for load transfer from one feeder to the other in the event of maintenance work, ensuring uninterrupted power delivery.
Another project, he said, was the repair of damaged subterranean sub-transmission link cables between two substations, ensuring that Communities 5, 6, and 10 had a stronger power supply.
"The Company saw that the load on the available transformers was increasing too high in some regions, resulting in low voltage to customers in the catchment area." Several transformers were added to the existing ones in Prampram, Community 19, and behind the Emef Estate to serve Power City and the adjacent districts," he said.
He explained that the company was devoted to its purpose of providing clients with safe, high-quality, and reliable power services, which was why it was spending extensively in the projects.
He encouraged developers and the general public to avoid infringing on rights of way that might contain power network infrastructure, claiming that doing so caused delays in the repair of issues.
He warned the public of making illicit connections that could overload ECG's transformers.
Mr. Appoe remarked, "Illegal connections are one of the leading causes of transformer overloads, which result in low voltages for consumers and, in some cases, total transformer failure, putting customers out of service until the transformers are replaced."