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Building contractors and potential house owners have been charged to use only certified electrical engineers from the Energy Commission to wire their houses. Mr Emmanuel Appoe, Tema ECG Regional Engineer, who gave the charge at a media interaction, said failure to use a certified electrician would result in the turning down of metre application by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Mr Appoe said a certification form from the electrician is required to be attached to the metre application before it would be approved. He disclosed that his outfit would crosscheck with the Energy Commission for the authenticity of the electrician who did the wiring as part of the processes to provide power to consumers.
According to him, the move was to ensure that proper wiring standards were adhered to for the safety of consumers and the general public. He therefore urged building contractors and individuals to visit the ECG offices in their area for a list of Energy Commission's certified electricians and their contacts instead of relying on wayside ones.
On the need to regularly check the electrical connections in consumers premises, he advised that every building must have a connection chamber where they could monitor their cable connections.
He explained that without a connection chamber, the earth cables could have a breakage and never detected, a situation which could lead to electrical shock when one touches any wall in the building.The Engineer advised that owners and occupants of buildings had regular testing of their wiring annually for early detection of electricity currents to ensure their safety.
He also entreated landowners and District Assemblies to desist from allowing people to site containers on utility corridors. He indicated that such acts made it difficult for electrical faults on underground cables to be worked on timely as the shops would first have to be evacuated before the needed excavations.
Mr Appoe also cautioned the public against building under overhead electrical cable as doing so could lead to deaths if falling cables got into contact with such buildings and containers. In another development, the ECG has started billing customers in the Krobo area in the Tema ECG region, after residents staged series of demonstrations against the Company and prevented its officials from operating in the area to back their request for lower tariffs.
Officials of the ECG after the agitations in 2017, embarked on a number of strategies including engaging customers and chiefs in the area, intensive public education, among others.
