The Juapong District of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) under the Tema Region has cautioned the public to desist from interfering with the network of the power distributor, as such interferences pose a threat to both the company, customers and the public.
This caution is as a result of an incident that occurred on Saturday, May 18, 2024 when the District discovered that a 200KVA transformer situated at Asikuma, a town under its jurisdiction, had suffered burnout of the fuse protecting the transformer.
The Juapong District Engineer, Rejoice Garfo, on a stakeholders’ Whatsapp platform said “It has come to the notice of the Company that some people, possibly electricians, who are not staff of the company constantly interfere with the distribution network, especially in times of outage, in a bid to restore supply. This, however, is dangerous, as these persons will not be privy to the uniqueness of the network design for that particular area.”
She warned that should such interferences continue, the entire transformer could get damaged, adding that in such an instance, the customers would likely remain without supply for a while, until a new transformer is installed.
The Juapong District Manager, Ing. William Ahenkorah added that “these transformers cost the company a lot of resources to be replaced, which means resources meant for other projects will have to be redirected to replacing the damaged transformers. These situations burden the financial operation of the company.”
Ing Ahenkorah also cautioned that before any part of the distribution network is worked on, the teamwork ensures that power is off where necessary. This, he said, is to avoid accidents, injury and possible death.
“Imagine, then, if an unauthorised person decides to work on the network because of an outage, and then the network gets energised. This can lead to loss of life.”
He, therefore, cautioned the customers and the general public to report all issues concerning power supply, outage and related problems to the ECG for resolution, rather than taking chances on their own.
