ECG introduces ‘one day connection’ service

ECG introduces ‘one day connection’ service

By Mohammed Awal

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has inaugurated a service connection plan dubbed -‘one-day-service connection delivery’, aimed at improving customer service delivery in the area.

The Managing Director of the ECG, Rev. Ing Hutton Mensah, speaking at the inauguration in Accra on Friday said the introduction of the ‘one-day-service connection delivery’ was a demonstration of their preparedness as a company to “totally confront and surmount the most daunting challenges which are characteristics of electricity delivery business.”

According to him, the “Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) announced a benchmark of five working days, within which new connections should be completed.”

The ECG, Mr. Hutton Mensah mentioned, managed to exceed the PURC’s benchmark of five days, announcing that “ECG now connects electricity supply to customers’ premises within one working day of their payment of the relevant service connection fees.”

Apprehensions and frustrations

“Given the complex engineering network and the intricate technical operations needed to connect one single customer on the national grid, the ‘one-day-service-connection innovation’  is a big achievement and it is a source of  pride to for the entire ECG,” added the MD.

The innovation would eliminate customer apprehensions and frustrations in getting connected to the national grid, Mr. Hutton Mensah noted, adding that it would also put a stop to acts of illegal connections.

The District Manager of the ECG, Achimota sub-office, Mr. Seth Dekpor said the customer is the focus of the ECG therefore whatever innovations the company introduces is “geared towards the Customer” satisfaction.

“Performance is not only going to be in our books or the four corners of this building. Performance will be carried out to the customer”, he promised, adding “We want the customer to understand and feel what we call performance.”

Decrease in system losses

Over the past two years the ECG has been able to reduce its system losses from 27% to 22%.  The target this year is to reduce these losses even further down to the Public Utilities Regulation Commission (PURC) benchmark of 21%.

The reduction in these system losses, according to Mr. Seth Dekpor goes a long way to save the ECG some revenues, believed to be in the region of GH¢30million. No company, he said, can survive without effective revenue collecting mechanism.

The acting Regional Manager of the ECG - Accra West division, Ing Delali Oklu congratulated the management for the brilliant initiative.

“In fact completing a new service for a prospective customer within one day is not rocket science. But it takes leadership and innovation to shorten the long established procedures to exceed customers’ expectations.”