Personnel of the Tema Region of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have been embarking on customer education and sensitization with members of the public within its jurisdiction.
The personnel, made up of the Public Relations and Marketing Units of the Tema Region, and supported by the Prampram District had this sensitization program in and around Miotso, near Prampram on 30th March 2022.
The sensitization programs had the personnel interact with members of the public while putting a plea across for the public to help safeguard ECG equipment.
The discussions also focused on how to use electricity safely and efficiently as well as the organization’s policies where illegal connection is concerned.
In recent times, the Tema Region had been having challenges with fuse theft and transformer vandalism. To this, Ms. Sakyiwaa Mensah, the Public Relations Officer for ECG Tema Region asked for the public to support the Company by helping to police all ECG installations and to report or stop people with shady characters around such installations.
She added that the ID cards of field workers can be asked for in a bid to ensure that they are the right people doing what is expected of them.
She continued that “such theft and vandalism causes inconveniences to customers as their power goes off for a while, while it also affects the Company’s resources which must then be channeled into replacements rather than other projects”. This, she added, causes a strain for both consumers and the service provider.
Ms. Barbara Mussey with the Marketing Unit of ECG Tema Region took participants through effective use of electricity in order to reduce wastage.
Using one of the educational materials on power consumption which the Company has produced, she informed them of how various household items consume power differently.
She mentioned that equipment which need heating to work, such as kettles, irons and electric cookers consume a lot of power, and advised participants to iron in bulk as a way of conserving energy.
She also added that if kettles are to be used, the quantity of water needed for, say, a cup of tea should be heated, rather than heating a whole kettle full of water and using a small amount.
Mr. Mark Seguri the Technical Officer at the Prampram District of the Company provided insights on the requirements for acquisition of new meters. The requirements include a site plan, certified electrician certificate and an identity card of the owner.
Some of the participants asked why the Company requires an electrical wiring certificate from specific Electricians, even if they have wired their houses.
To this, Mr. Seguri responded that this requirement for Energy Commission Certified Electricians Certificate is a Government policy which is meant to ensure that the right cables and all other relevant materials had been used for the wiring, and to avoid the possibility of fire outbreaks as a result of bad wiring.
Mr. Seguri made it clear that the Energy Commission Certified Electricians were not staff of the ECG, however, the various District Offices have contacts of those within their Districts in a bid to help customers reach them faster.
He also spoke about some of the instances the company considers as illegal connection as well as the sanctions involved and asked the public to desist from such acts.
The participants were excited with the information shared and thanked the utility service provider for the education, while calling for more of such community education.