By Samuel Akumatey
Ho, Jan. 18, GNA – The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has appealed to the public to help protect its poles from fire damage, as the season got drier, to prevent outages.
Mr Emmanuel Lumor, the Volta Regional Manager of the Company, said fire-damaged poles took more efforts to replace, which resulted in outages, hence the public must consider it a responsibility to ensure the safety of electricity poles for uninterrupted power supply.
The Regional Manager was addressing the media on its operations during the season and said the region’s continuous experience of bushfires was a threat to service delivery.
“The bane of the region is bushfires. People are setting fires that are causing damage to our properties, especially the poles and equipment,” Mr Lumor said, and asked the public to always be active in saving the utility installations.
“There are prolonged outages because getting materials to replace poles is always a challenge. So I would like to appeal to us all to report any fire near poles to the Fire Service or the ECG or you can assist in putting the fire out.”
The company had replaced more than 800 poles since 2019 in the Volta and Oti regions due to such fires despite the construction of fire belts, and the coating of poles in susceptible areas.
He said community support had also helped in addressing the damage and called for more assistance.
The Volta and Oti regions continued to receive a boost in energy supply and services with the installation of 70 transformers in a latest effort, Mr Lumor said.
It was actively replacing poles in fire prone areas including the Ho to Aflao stretch and the plains traversed by the Eastern Corridor superhighway, he said.
More than 4500 rotten poles had been replaced whiles transmission lines had been extended to unhooked areas, and some primary substation transformers upgraded.
He said power stabilization had increased from 80 to 90 per cent as a result and stakeholders, including workers, had received positive mentions from the public.
“The company seeks to build upon the gains in the years ahead and plans to enhance customer experience by using GPS and other data to improve service response time,” he said.
GNA