The Tema Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has installed 82,000 Clou Smart Meters in a project aimed at replacing existing residential and commercial prepaid meters.

Announcing this on Tuesday, Mr Mawudefia Dotse Hlorlewu, Tema Regional ECG Commercial Manager, indicated that the project was piloted in December 2019 and rolled out from January 2021.

Mr Hlorlewu said the Clou smart meters were being installed mainly in Afienya, Nungua, Tema township and their surrounding areas.

"It forms part of the company's drive to continuously improve convenience for customers," he said.

The new meters, he indicated, have several benefits, including the ability to help customers track their energy consumption and to be able to buy credit using the ECG Power App for smart phones or *226# for non-smart phones.

He added that the new meters make use of a keypad operator rather than a card that required customers to insert or swipe to load credits, adding that they were also GPRS compliant.

This making it possible for purchases to be remotely credited to the meter either from the point of sale or through the ECG Power App.

The Commercial Manager announced that vending points to serve customers were commissioned at strategic locations where the project had taken off and would be extended to other communities as the project progresses, adding that the Company would continue to educate customers on how the new meters work.

Mr Emmanuel Appoe, Tema Regional ECG Engineer, explaining how the meters work, said they were individually linked to a separate user interface unit installed on the customer's premises which could be used to manually operate the meter.

Mr Appoe noted that in the event where purchases were not remotely credited to the meter due to network challenges, the user interface could be used by customers to manually conclude the transaction using the token number on the purchase receipt generated at the vending point or from the ECG Power app.

Touching on the technical qualities, he said, "these meters can cut off power whenever there are challenges with unstable voltages in the system, be it high or low," adding that it would automatically cut if a customer tries tampering with it stressing that "the ECG officials will immediately know that the meter has been tampered with."

Mr Emmanuel Akinie, Tema ECG Regional General Manager, on his part, said the Clou metering project would be extended to other parts of the region.

"We are going to systematically increase the penetration of Clou meters in the region but in phases," he said and added that it would be mutually beneficial to the communities and the Company.

He expressed delight at the successful take-off of the project and thanked the traditional leadership, residents and organizations for their support and collaboration.