Gov`t gives $235m to ECG
The Government of Ghana (GoG) has allocated an Investment Credit Facility of $235 million to boost the operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The package is intended to facilitate and enhance the operations of the ECG to enable it provide quality and efficient service to its customers nationwide.
The money was partly sourced from the French (US$85million) and Norwegian (US$55million) governments, with the remaining US$95million coming from the coffers of the Government of Ghana after an initial request of US$1billion by the company.
“We are full of confidence because Government’s financial support to the company has been exceptional this year. The money is going to be ploughed into the system to ensure supply availability and reliability to customers”, noted J.O. Adu-Amankwah, Managing Director (MD) of ECG when he granted an interview with this reporter in Accra last Thursday.
The credit facility would be invested in network expansion, network enforcement, system refurbishment, and system enhancement as well as building flexibility in the operations of the company. Annual technical loss of the company stands around 11-12% and it is believed that upon completion of the projects, technical loss would come down if not eliminated.
Operations of the company, according to the Managing Director would be further boosted with a Nationwide Automation System. The company is currently intensifying the secondary automation of its rural networks to improve customer service delivery to allow for immediate recognition and repair of faults in real time.
“ECG has medium to long term plans to automate its service delivery to make it live up to its billing as one of the best power utilities in Africa”, noted the MD.
Touching on the frequent power outages the country, Mr. Adu-Amankwah said his outfit is vigorously pursuing state of the art means to rectify the phenomena.
He said the major challenge faced by the company was the deployment of the Volta River Authority’s (VRA) Automatic Frequency Load Management System that trips power to certain parts of the capital city automatically to salvage the entire system from collapse, adding that “such outages do not only inconvenience our valued customers but eventually affect our image negatively”.
To him, the ECG is committed to better serve its clients and to achieve its goals. It has thus purchased new operational vehicles for all the districts it operates in to facilitate displacement and response time to customer needs. In addition, all the districts have been provided with imprest stores to facilitate rapid deployment of service materials.
“The usual refrain of lack of critical materials for service connection is now a thing of the past. This is because, we have more than enough to satisfy customer demands.
This is testimony to the fact that management is leaving no stone unturned to provide staff with the opportunity to perform. We therefore have no excuse, within the limits of our operations for not performing enough to satisfy our cherished customers”, said Mr. Adu-Amankwah.
Beginning from next year, the company would replace all bare conductors by ABC insulated conductors that are able to withstand interference from windy storms, birds and falling objects. It would also embark on nationwide campaign to rid its installations of squatters and structures that have been illegally developed on its land.
According to management of the ECG, it would not hesitate to prosecute all encroachers of its territory since the structures pose serious threat to its installations.
Source: The Chronicle