ECG installs meters for MDAs

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has installed 2,103 prepaid meters in the 2,555 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the country.

This leaves 452 vital installations such as hospitals, police stations and educational institutions which have been exempted due to a Cabinet directive.

“We have virtually completed the project,” the Public Relations Manager of the ECG, Mr William Boateng, told the Daily Graphic, adding that the institutions that were left would be considered after discussions with the stakeholders.

He commended the government for taking a bold decision to replace credit meters in the MDAs with prepaid ones.

That, he said, meant that the government would not be indebted to the ECG in the future, due to the indebtedness of the MDAs, as had been the case previously.

“Now that the government is giving them the money upfront for them (MDAs) to pay, it means that there would not be the issue of indebtedness to ECG,” Mr Boateng said.

Street light levy

Responding to a questionnaire on who was responsible for street lights since metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) had complained of lack of resources to maintain them, he said, it was the responsibility of the MMDAs to take care of the lights.

“The street lights are not under ECG; they are not our baby, it is the assemblies and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum that work to illuminate or make sure that they are always working. It  is not ECG’s business,” he said.

In order to generate the needed revenue to address the problem of maintenance of the lights, he said, the Ministry of Energy had made proposals for an increase in the street levy, which was woefully inadequate.

The current amount charged for street light levy is 0.0001 pesewa. It was pegged at 50 pesewas (old cedis) per kilowatt hour when it was introduced 19 years ago through an Act of Parliament and has since remained so.

Mr Boateng said the law introducing the levy stated that the “ECG should put in the tariff regime a streetlight levy”.

When he was asked how the streetlight levy was expended, he said,the law stipulated that out of the total amount generated, 80 per cent should go into public lighting (all street lights).

“This is because streetlights need to be paid for by someone. This is whether in the villages, urban centres through the magnanimity of a rich man or metropolitan assembly or district assembly or government; someone must pay for it,” he said.

The remaining 20 per cent of the amount, Mr Boateng said, was used to maintain 27 designated ceremonial streets in Accra.

“This is the law; this is not ECG,” he emphasised.

Metering of street lights

Mr Boateng said all streetlights had been metered to determine the actual consumption of power. For instance in 2009, the street lights’ power consumption amounted to GH¢18,330,950.19, but the ECG realised GHC¢14,354.70 from the street light levy, meaning the government had to pay the difference.

For the year ending 2012, he said, the government was expected to pay the ECG GH¢ 55,480,001,17 as the cost of power consumed by street lights.

“The government is working towards reimbursing us,” he said.

By Emmanuel Bonney/Daily Graphic/Ghana