The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has urged the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to address persistent power outages and delays in the acquisition and replacement of meters. 

The Commission said the concerns were among the major issues raised during its mid-year monitoring and consumer engagements across the Greater Accra Region. 

Madam Gifty Bruce-Nelson, Greater Accra Regional Manager at PURC, made the call during a meeting with ECG district managers and technical officers from the region’s district offices. 

She said the engagement was aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two institutions and providing firsthand information on operational, technical, and customer service challenges affecting electricity supply. 

Madam Bruce-Nelson said the region recorded the highest number of complaints about electricity service quality during the mid-year review, mainly involving persistent outages, phase-offs, power fluctuations and low voltages. 

She said the Commission’s electronic complaint channels, including its WhatsApp platforms, had facilitated the reporting of consumer concerns, while field and industrial monitoring had identified overloaded transformers, meter shortages and theft, network connectivity gaps and instances of impersonation of ECG staff. 

Madam Bruce-Nelson urged ECG to prioritise transformer upgrades and network infrastructure improvements, to improve communication with consumers on fault restoration, and to strengthen field operations. 

She also called for greater efficiency in the acquisition, installation, and replacement of meters, saying that delays contributed to estimated billing, illegal connections, and disputes over electricity consumption. 

“Kindly improve the efficiency of the metering process and provide consumers with clear information regarding application procedures, requirements and expected timelines,” she said. 

Billing was also identified as a major source of consumer complaints, including concerns over high electricity bills, meter-reading problems, delays in resolving billing disputes and discrepancies between expected and actual consumption. 

Some ECG district managers said some customers had installed substandard meters that were not captured in the company’s system and had subsequently refused to pay their bills. 

They said community engagements had therefore been organised to educate consumers on the need to pay their bills and ensure that all meters were properly captured in the ECG system. 

The managers also cited the transition to a new billing system following the shutdown of the previous one as a factor contributing to some billing challenges. 

Issues relating to SHEP meters and the distribution of meters outside ECG’s regular systems were also discussed. 

The engagement was part of PURC and ECG's efforts to strengthen collaboration and improve electricity service delivery and customer relations in the region.