The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has deployed a digital billing system and enhanced its PowerApp to address billing challenges faced by customers.

This transformative move aims to streamline the process of collecting electricity consumption data, to ensure customers pay exactly the amount of energy consumed.

The digitization initiative involves the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technology, allowing for real-time data collection and remote monitoring of electricity consumption.

This transition from traditional manual meter reading to digital systems would reduce human errors, improve billing accuracy, and enhance overall service delivery.

Over the last few months, customers of the power distributor have faced challenges with their bills like estimated bills, wrong bills, and overbilling.

However, speaking to the media in Kumasi, the Acting General Manager of ECG in the Ashanti West Region, Ing. Emmanuel Osei- Amoako explained that the company has moved away from capturing meter readings manually and has digitized the process to inspire confidence from our customers.

Ing. Osei Amoako indicated that the ECG PowerApp has a feature that enables postpaid customers to submit their meter readings and receive their bills to make it easy for them to pay their bills on time. “Postpaid Customers can now submit their readings at the end of every month and their bill will be generated for them, hence this education”, he said.

“Once you download the ECG PowerApp from the Google Play Store or AppStore, click on service request on the top right corner, then choose Report an Issue then choose Issue with  Postpaid Bill and take a picture of the reading on your meter and submit it”, he explained.

The Acting General Manager also announced that the communications department of the company has commenced a robust education campaign to help postpaid customers use the ECG PowerApp submit their readings for prompt billing.

Ing. Osei Amoako also added that as part of the digital billing system, when the ECG Officials get to the premises of a customer, “ they have a POS device which enables them to capture and verify the meter readings of customers and also take pictures of the readings and the meter. Once they capture this information, our back office receives the information instantly for the billing process to commence. With the POS device, customers who even want an instant bill can request it from the ECG Officials and their Current bill will be printed from the device for them immediately”.

Ing. Amoako expressed hope that this initiative would not only promote transparency but also encourage active participation from consumers in managing their electricity usage.

He added that with the digitized system, it is end to end and now the customers can see what is happening which is a step in the right direction in building confidence and being transparent with our customers. “Once customers can see what is happening, we will all be on the same page”, he said.

Ing. Osei- Amoako indicated that ECG staff have been well equipped to train customers on how to read their meters as part of efforts to promote transparency between the company and its customers so all customers should take an interest in the activities of our staff when they visit their premises and avail themselves for this education.

Ing. Osei- Amoako urged customers to desist from illegal connections and take advantage of the ongoing revenue mobilization exercise dubbed “Operation Collect All” to correct all anomalies and also pay their bills through the ECG PowerApp or shortcode *226# to enable the company to gather enough revenue to sustain the electricity supply chain.

This digitized system forms part of the company’s transformational projects to enhance operational efficiency, provide customer convenience, and reduce system losses drastically.