Mr. Otoo (in helmet) and a colleague pointing to one of the damaged switches
THE ELECTRICITY Company of Ghana (ECG) has sent a strong warning to scrap dealers and other “nation wreckers” who are vandalising their underground switchgears by removing their covers thereby exposing them to explosions.
The unscrupulous individuals have so far removed the protective covers of 15 underground switchgears withing in the Accra East region of ECG, costing a total of GH₵150,000 to replace them.
A switchgear which is usually installed close to transformers, is composed of electrical disconnect switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical equipment.
The company has so far recorded incidents of switch cover removals in areas like Cantonments, Ridge, Airport Residential Area and Osu, where it dominantly has underground distribution networks.
The Accra East Regional Manager of ECG, Bismark Otoo, speaking to the press, said the perpetrators are removing the covers placed on the switchgears and this weakens the insulations on them and with time the switches explode, resulting in power outage and can cause the electrocution of passersby.
He indicated that the vandalism was costing the company huge sums of money especially when there was a power outage as a result of an explosion of the switchgears.
“The real cost is in when there is outage and the customers are off, there is something we call unsold energy – when the generating companies have provided supply and we have not been able to sell them, because the supply is resting at our terminals, there is a cost we pay if a fault occurs which results in power outage,” Mr. Otoo stated.
He said the company has not been able to apprehend any perpetrator yet but their preliminary investigation reveal that scrap dealers are behind the vandalism.
“They see them to be metals so once they find them to be metals, they have that scrap value for them,” he said.
He said the company does not keep spare covers for the switches so when incidents of vandalism occur, they resort to their switches scrap yard where they recover covers of retired switches to replace the stolen one.
“Until this need came, we were not keeping them so it is becoming a bit challenging,” Mr. Otoo told the press.
He indicated that one sure way to secure the switches is to provide fences which is ongoing but the challenge is that they “cannot put them on a very tight lock and key because when the field operative needs to do any work he should have access.”
He disclosed that the company is working with the security agencies to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book and also called on the general public to vigilant and be on the lookout.
“Amongst ourselves as a company, those our field men who go out, we have conscientized all of them to look out for these kinds of nation wreckers, the people who are trying to vandalise our systems. The information and education is still ongoing, we are trying to inform as many people as possible to be on the lookout to help us to bring these people to book,” Mr. Otoo added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak