The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has explained that the excessive heat waves being experienced in some parts of the country were impacting their efficient service of power supply.

It said due to the high ambient temperature at this time of the year, which also meant more use of power, some areas within their operational areas were experiencing overloading.

The Director of Communications of the ECG, William Boateng, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said since December, demand for electricity had increased by 10 per cent; thus, putting pressure on their lines.

Contrary to the assertion that there was a shortfall in power generation, the ECG Director, Communications insisted that what was happening had nothing to do with power generation as that challenge had been resolved.

“The issue of the generational shortages has been fixed. But outages are still being experienced in some areas and that is mainly due to the increase in power demand at this time of the year when the extremely high temperature means prolonged use of cooling appliances.

“That could also lead to blown fuses and broken conductors, causing phase-offs and in some areas, low voltages, we, therefore, encourage customers to report any such localised outages and voltage fluctuations to the ECG Call Centre for immediate redress,” he stated.

Improving service, reducing loss

Mr Boateng said despite these hitches, ECG’s services had greatly improved due to investment in facilities and this year, it planned to further invest in more efficient services.

While doing that, the company would also continue with its loss reduction project it began last year.

He said as part of the plans, ECG was targeting to secure 800,000 smart prepaid meters to take care of the backlog and forecast demands for this year.

This would include those on the waiting list to be served meters, replacing faulty meters and ensuring that almost all postpaid customers were rolled onto the smart prepaid meters.

“It is an ongoing project, but this year, we are targeting to secure 800,000 management system compliant meters or what we simply refer to as smart prepaid meters to clear the backlog, serve those on the waiting list, as well as roll all postpaid customers, particularly, within the regional municipal and district capitals, on to the prepaid service.

“That will help us to better monitor the integrity and functioning of our meters and services as part of our loss reduction project,” Mr Boateng stated.