The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Volta Region has engaged assembly members in the Ketu South Municipality as part of a strategy to build mutually beneficial relationships with strategic stakeholders.

The platform was also used to sensitize the 57 assembly members and the Ketu South Municipal Chief Executive Elliot Agbenorwu on the operations of ECG.

Speaking at the engagement, the Volta Regional General Manager, Emmanuel Lumor, indicated that his outfit considers assembly members as strategic stakeholders who are crucial to the operations of the power distribution company. 

Due to this, he said there would be frequent engagements to dialogue on salient issues and gather feedback to improve service delivery.

“Assembly members are representatives of their electorates and are closer to the customers than the company, so we will work together to ensure our customers enjoy safe, quality, and reliable electricity services to support the economic growth and development of Ghana”, he said.

He outlined that his administration intends to make the Volta ECG the hub of excellent customer service, where customer satisfaction is paramount. 

He outlined that measures have been put in place to ensure customers are satisfied with the services of the power distributor which includes a reliable power supply to existing and prospective customers, both domestic and industrial. 

Mr. Lumor reiterated the commitment of the company to provide a stable power supply in the region and announced some interventions within the Ketu South Municipality. 

“The company has begun injecting some transformers to improve power supply in the Region, and the company intends to add close to 400 transformers by the end of the year 2021.

"In addition, the company has upgraded some single-phase networks to three-phase networks and will soon commence the construction of a switching station at Akatsi to ensure customers and industries enjoy stable power supply”, he said.

He further indicated that “tree is a conductor of electricity so, in the event of lightning, it could endanger lives and also cause outages since the protection on the ECG network will go off once the tree touches the network to save lives.”

“Trees interfering with the ECG network also causes damage to the transformers which often leads to outages so the company has embarked on an exercise to remove trees interfering with the ECG network”.

Mr Lumor implored them to ensure their electorates do not plant trees directly under ECG networks to safeguard lives and ensure there is a stable power supply in their communities. 

He also noted that, hitherto, the company was losing thousands of poles to perennial bush fire, which is the primary cause of outages and financial loss to the company. 

He said that with the help of some assembly members, the company lost only 14 poles this year and intends to reduce the number to the barest minimum same time next year. 

Mr Lumor, therefore, appealed to the assembly members to assist the company in achieving zero burnt poles. 

“As a company, we have instituted measures like the creation of fire belts around wood poles and replacing of some wood poles with steel tubular poles to safeguard the poles, but we need the assembly members to assist the company by sensitizing their electorates on how indiscriminate bush fires affect the operations of the company and ensure people quench fires anytime they start any”.

Mr. Lumor added that the assembly members must ensure their communities are well lit with streetlights and the ECG has a supervisory role that some assembly members overlook when they take delivery of streetlights. 

“As an Assemblymember, when you get a streetlight for your electoral area, engage ECG to properly advise you on how to install it. ECG will show you the right phase to connect the streetlight be it the blue, red, or yellow phase to ensure one phase of the transformer is not overloaded or the community does not experience low voltage as a result of mass installation of the streetlights”, he said. 

He clarified that the company does not charge before assisting in connecting the streetlight to the national grid.

He also advised the assembly members to notify the company when they identify a fast developing area or likely to develop soon to enable the company budget for extension of power to the identified areas. 

He added that such proactive actions will enable the company to carry out development projects to meet the growing electricity demand and ensure customers enjoy a reliable power supply.

He further charged the honorable members to protect and take good care of ECG installations like transformers, poles, cables, and meters in their respective electoral areas to prolong the life span of the equipment. 

This he believes would save the company money to carry out other development projects which will inure to the benefit of customers.

He advocated for prompt payment of electricity bills and warned against engaging in unauthorized activities since such acts would rob ECG of finances, which could be channeled into other projects for the benefit of the general public. 

Mr. Lumor tasked the assembly members to act as whistleblowers and report persons engaging in illegal connections to the ECG adding there is a financial reward for doing so.

“There is a 6% commission of any amount we recoup as an incentive for anyone who gives us reliable information to unearth any illegality”, he disclosed. 

The Municipal Chief Executive for Ketu South, Elliot Edem Agbenorwu, lauded the management of ECG Volta Region for the sensitization exercise and urged the ECG to continue to build mutually beneficial relationships with the municipality to enhance service delivery. 

He also charged the assembly members to sensitize their electorates on the operations of ECG to enable the company to operate in a harmonious environment.