The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, has announced that all government agencies would soon operate on prepaid meters as part of a broader strategy to enhance efficiency and reduce both technical and commercial losses in the electricity distribution system.
He said the initiative is a key component of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) Loss Reduction Programme (LRP), which targets illegal connections and metering inefficiencies.
Addressing Parliament, the Minister explained that ECG is currently deploying multiple interventions under the LRP. A key strategy, he said, is Boundary Metering, which involves the installation of MMS-compliant meters at all regional and district boundaries.
“This is intended to enhance comprehensive upstream and downstream energy audits, allowing ECG to identify areas with high system losses,” he noted.
So far, boundary metering has been completed in five of ECG’s ten operational regions; Western, Central, Eastern, Volta, and Tema, while the rest are at various stages of implementation.
The Minister also highlighted Distribution Transformer (DT) Metering as a critical step. Under this project, ECG aims to install MMS-compliant meters on all distribution transformers to enable better energy tracking and transformer load management.
“So far, 3,349 DT meters have been installed out of a target of 30,000. The Ministry is working to expedite the release of meters currently held at the port,” he said.
To address cases where customers are without meters, either due to delays after payment or faulty devices, ECG has introduced Flat Rate Billing as a temporary measure. This approach, he explained, is preventing unauthorised connections while ensuring the company accounts for power consumed.
