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ECG installs prepaid meters at UCC

ECG installs prepaid meters at UCC

The Central Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has begun a project to install prepaid meters on the campus of the University of Cape Coast and other tertiary institutions in the region.

 A project to install about 500 meters at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) has already begun. The meters would also be installed at various commercial outlets and lecturers’ bungalows on the university campus.

 Officials of the ECG told newsmen that the initiative formed part of the company’s drive to improve its revenue base and promote openness in its dealings with customers.

 

The move comes in the wake of many disconnection exercises in the recent past in some of the country’s tertiary institutions due to the huge bills they owed the ECG.

Briefing the media in Cape Coast on the exercise, Mr Mawudoefia Dotse Hlorlewu, Central Regional Commercial Manager of the ECG, said the prepayment system was built within the UCC’s bulk meter network.

He said the move would forestall disconnection to the university campus and the commercial outlets on the campus.

 “With the introduction of prepayment metering, customers can monitor their consumption and conserve energy” he added.

 UCC/ECG collaboration

Mr Hlorlewu said the UCC prepayment metering project was a collaboration between the ECG and the management of the university.

To ensure uninterrupted and easy access to power, he said, the ECG had provided vending stations on the university campus and also trained personnel to serve the community, while the university provided computers and other logistics for the exercise.

 For his part, the General Manager of ECG in the Central Region, Mr Abraham Anokye Abebreseh, expressed delight at the successful take off of the project and thanked the Vice-Chancellor of the university and management for their cooperation and support.

Other institutions

He said the project would be extended to the University of Education, Winneba, and other tertiary institutions in the region.

“We are going to systematically increase the penetration of prepaid meters in the region to improve upon the revenue base of the company” Mr Abebreseh said, and added that the collaboration would be mutually beneficial to both the institutions and the ECG.

Background

Last year, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) carried out a mass disconnection exercise which affected a number of tertiary institutions.

Some institutions that were affected by the exercise were the Kumasi Polytechnic, Koforidua Polytechnic and Kumasi Technical Institute.

The cabinet later directed utility companies to exempt all public health and educational institutions from the nationwide disconnection exercise.

The ECG has initiated the project to install prepaid meters in those institutions to prevent power disconnections at the tertiary institutions.

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