The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced that customers who were affected by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) prepayment system failure will have to complete and submit forms at their various ECG district offices for compensation.

This is expected to begin from Monday, October 24 to Friday, October 28. Customers can also complete the forms at any PURC regional office, the ECG website and the PURC website.

“ECG under PURC’s regulatory oversight shall investigate and analyse information contained in submitted forms and compensate affected customers accordingly,” a statement from the PURC on Friday read.

The statement indicated that the decision was reached after extensive engagements with the Management of ECG.

The PURC said only customers whose electricity supply was interrupted due to the vending failure will be considered for compensation.

Earlier this month, many ECG customers across the country had to queue at vending centres in search of credit for their meters in order to use electricity.

Consumers were left in the dark for over a week after a technical challenge affected the purchase of credits for their meters.

“Affected customers should please note that our engineers are working assiduously to correct the anomaly and restore the system to normalcy.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this technical challenge,” the Ashanti SBU appealed in the statement signed by its director, David Asamoah.

Customers in Volta Region, Takoradi, Tema, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Winneba, Swedru, Koforidua, Nkawkaw and Tafo were affected.

Subsequently, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) directed the ECG to pay due compensation to its customers who have been affected by the prevailing challenges with the prepayment vending system.

“In light of the breach of ECG’s statutory obligations specifically sections 11 and 12(1) and (2) of the Public Utilities Act, 1997, (Act 538) and Regulations 41 and 45 of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (Consumer Service) Regulations, 2022 (LI 2413), the Commission hereby orders ECG to pay compensation to the affected customers.”

The Company has since fixed the technical challenge and customers are now able to purchase prepaid credits.