All government agencies will soon use prepaid meters, according to Hon. John Abdulai Jinapor, Minister of Energy and Green Transition, as part of efforts to lower systemic technical and financial losses. According to him, this approach will guarantee efficiency as well.
Hon. John Abdulai Jinapor, Minister for Energy and Green Transition, responded to a question posed by Member of Parliament for Effutu Osahen Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin by outlining the specific steps the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is taking as part of the Loss Reduction Program to cut down on technical and commercial losses.
He pointed out that as part of its Loss Reduction Programme (LRP) projects, the ECG is actively implementing a number of measures to resolve metering issues and mitigate illegal electrical connections.
The goal of these initiatives, he continued, is to drastically cut down on both technical and commercial losses in the company’s operating domains.
According to the Minister, one important project is Boundary Metering, which aims to install MMS-compliant meters at all district and regional boundary sites.
“This is intended to enhance comprehensive upstream and downstream energy audits, allowing ECG to identify areas with high system losses,” he noted.
Five of the ten ECG operational zones—Western, Central, Eastern, Volta, and Tema—have finished installing boundary meters, according to the Minister, and work is still proceeding in the other regions.
Distribution Transformer (DT) Metering, which aims to install MMS compliant meters on all Distribution Transformers across ECG’s operational territories, is another important initiative, he revealed.
He informed the House that this project will make it easier to conduct downstream energy audits in order to find commercial losses and enhance transformer load control.
“So far, 3,349 DT meters have been installed out of a total of 30,000. The Ministry is currently working to accelerate the release of meters that are held up at the port, with expectations that the contractor will accelerate the installation rate once the necessary materials are cleared,” he stated.
For clients who have not had their meters installed after completing payments or who have defective meters that need to be replaced, ECG has also implemented flat-rate billing.
He emphasized that sales that were previously impossible to account for are being helped by this short-term approach.
According to him, the purpose of this temporary fix is to minimize business losses by preventing clients from establishing direct links.
Source: newsthemegh.com