It’s criminal to tamper with transformers — Juapong ECG

The Juapong District Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), William Ahenkorah, has cautioned customers to refrain from engaging unprofessional people to work on the company’s transformers and other electricity installations in their communities.

He said it was not only dangerous but criminal to work on the company’s electricity transformers in an attempt to check for any fault within their communities. He warned that persons found to be tampering with the company’s installations would face prosecution.

Mr Ahenkorah made the call after ECG discovered that some residents had interfered with the network of the power distributor. On Saturday, May 18, 2024, the ECG discovered that a 200KVA transformer located at Asikuma, which falls within the Tema Region of the ECG, had suffered a burn-out fuse protecting the installation.

The ECG said it suspected some people, possibly electricians who were not staff of the company, as persons constantly interfering with the distribution network, especially in times of power outages in a bid to restore supply.

Danger

He cautioned that such practices were dangerous, as those behind such acts were not privy to the uniqueness of the network design for that particular area, stressing that the practice if continued could lead to the destruction of the transformer serving the community.

“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,” he said adding that “these situations burden the financial operation of the company.”

Mr Ahenkorah also cautioned that before any part of the distribution network was worked on, the team to work on it ensured that the power was off where necessary, 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 said. Mr Ahenkorah, 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.

The Juapong District Engineer of the ECG, Rejoice Garfo, appealed to the residents to desist from tampering, cautioning that “If such interferences were not stopped, the entire transformer could get damaged.”

She explained that in such an instance, the customers would likely remain without supply for a while until a new transformer was installed.