The Krobo Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited, located in Somanya, has embarked on a campaign against fake energy meters in a bid to protect customers from issues associated with the use of such meters.
The office has for the past few weeks, displayed a number of fake meters alongside original ones on a notice board at the office, where customers are constantly engaged and educated so as to become aware of the various types of fake meters in the system.
This campaign was necessitated during routine monitoring exercises.
The ECG said it became apparent that a number of customers had fake meters installed at their premises.
“Customers are being continually scammed by vendors of fake meters who pose as ECG workers, approach potential customers and then eventually give them these fake meters”, said Ing. Tetteh Apan, the Engineer in charge of the office.
He added that “customers are usually caught unaware by these vendors of fake meters who are made to seem like they are from ECG”.
He added that the nameplates of the meters are changed to often mimic that of original meters.
Some of these fake meters work all right but as they are not part of the ECG system, customers will often not get bills.
However, once the meter is seen by the ECG, the total amount of energy it has consumed is determined and the user is billed accordingly.
The energy supply of the user is also cut off and they are asked to report to the ECG office to start the process of acquiring a meter correctly.
The ECG encouraged potential customers and the general public to ignore such fake meters to avoid problems.
Monitoring and auditing of energy meters and other equipment are part of the core activities undertaken by the ECG. These are done to ensure the integrity and to ensure that they meters are working as they should.
In instances where fake meters are seen, they are seized by the ECG.
ECG pleaded with the public to inform the power distribution company about such fake meters whenever they come across.
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