By Juliet Aguiar DUGBARTEY, Takoradi
The Western Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has received an approved budget of GH¢9.7million for the year 2025.
The funding will enable the company to undertake key projects aimed at strengthening the power distribution system in the region.
Speaking at a media engagement in Takoradi, the General Manager of ECG, Ing. Emmanuel Justice Ofori, stated that the company has also proposed 22 additional transmission projects for 2025.
“These are high-profile projects designed to enhance inter-connectivity within our system. This will ensure that in the event of outages, we can seamlessly switch to alternative networks,” he said.
The initiatives are part of ECG’s broader efforts to improve service reliability and efficiency in the region.
Last year, he said, the company undertook 37 projects for system stability at a total cost of GH¢3.9m.
“These projects were aimed to intensify the system and reduce outages and ensure that customers have quality supply,” he said.
He said the company has exceeded the 40,000 smart prepaid metres target for customers in Sekondi-Takoradi and beyond.
A total of 48,938 smart metres for customers, he said, have been installed in Sekondi-Takoradi and Agona Nkwanta, while Tarkwa has recorded a total of 3,743 newly installed metres.
Ing. Ofori mentioned that the company has introduced premium services in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis for those seeking to get new service and separate metres on pilot basis.
“When you apply for the premium services, your line is connected on the same day; you just pay a little fee and you get the work done. If this project becomes successful then, we will extend it to other districts”. he explained.
On revenue, Ing. Ofori indicated that last year, the company undertook a lot of operations aimed at improving revenue collection. He indicated that one of them was Operation Zero; and they are currently on another operation code named ‘operation, keep the light on’.
These operations, he clarified, are aimed at improving the company’s revenue production.
“You know the challenges that ECG currently has, a challenge of revenue. We need money to do a lot of things; pay the IPPs and then do other things that will help stabilise our power system in our country. So, these exercises help in ensuring that we collect adequate revenue to meet our obligation and help revamp the network,” he pointed out.
He mentioned cable theft and vandalisation of sub-stations of the company, among others, continue to add cost to their operations.
He concluded that these challenges could result in a long-term outage, and urged the public to volunteer to report any person involve in such acts.
