According to him, ECG would have long solved the problem if the back-ups were available.

ECG customers in some parts of Accra have slept in darkness for the past four days because they were unable to top-up their credits, with long queues being recorded at the vending stations.

[contextly_sidebar id=”99rheHr5Gui12bibUvLHI5sQk9QVwuhK”]Residents of Achimota, Kaneshie, Dansoman and Korle bu and surrounding areas have been the most affected by the problem.

Thousands of customers also massed up at the head office of ECG near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra in a bid to have their problems resolved.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, the IT analyst, Sam Sackey, said ECG will have a tough time getting the lost database back.

“It’s going to take them some time to resolve the problem because if they had a back-up, this would have taken just few hours for the restoration to be done. They only have to get the back-up servers online and everything else will be normal. But now the servers can be normal but without information of some of their customers. All that it tells us is that, they [ECG] are not doing regular backups,” he added.

He said due to the enormous data size of its database, the backups could have been done at midnight when traffic on the system would have been slow since there wouldn’t be purchases during that time.

“They have millions of buyers so because of bandwidth and internet connectivity, you can back up your database at midnight because of the size of the data. What we are lacking most of the time is the project management and implementation, they are not doing that and therefore they have lost the database.”

“For example, every meter has a unique meter ID then your card also has an ID. So what happens is that when you go to the vendors to buy, you are buying with your card ID that is connected to your meter ID, they’ve lost that. So now that they’ve lost that, they are trying to revive their server and they don’t have these customers’ database in there; that is why people are unable to buy the prepaid credits,” the IT analyst added.

PURC threatens to sanction ECG

In a related development, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), has indicated that it may sanction ECG, over the challenges with its power prepayment system which has denied about 2000 customers access to electricity, as they are unable to purchase credit for their meters.

The sanction which includes fines according to the PURC will be imposed if ECG fails to furnish it with emergency response measures put in place following the challenges.

“The Commission as part of its enforcement process also issued initial time-bound directives to the ECG to submit details of its emergency response measures carried out. The directive elapsed at 4:00 pm on December 6, 2017. This has been followed up with a second directive to ECG requesting the company to show cause in respect of monetary penalties to be imposed with a response deadline of December 8, 2017, in accordance with due process,” PURC said in a statement.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Lack of backup caused ECG’s prepaid troubles – IT analyst appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

NEDCo had earlier disclosed that it is on the verge of collapse because of power theft.

The company’s Corporate Communications Director, Maxwell Kotoka noted that, they recorded 45% of power theft within their catchment area in the Tamale Metropolis alone.

[contextly_sidebar id=”xnSfZQiAFLAh9Fjhjcu8m3H3cTg1Huce”]Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Mr. Kotoka said customers who use prepaid meters have a higher motivation to steal power as compared to those on postpaid meters.

“Generally, we are looking at the prepaid users because the issue with the postpaid is that, there is no real motivation for them to steal the power. Reasons being that, as for the postpaid, you use [power], a bill is provided later then you pay. I must admit that there are instances where we are compelled to disconnect a defaulting customer but it is the prepaid meter customers who have that motivation because if they don’t have enough credits or units then they tamper with the power. Basically, they find disingenuous ways of outsmarting the meters,” he added.

“The fact that the postpaid customer does not have the motivation to steal power doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t have challenge there too, we do. When they owe so much and they are not paying, that also affects the finances and the possible growth of the company,” he added.

Many have opined that, the panacea to solving power theft in in Ghana that usually affects revenue of companies within Ghana’s power distribution chain was migrating postpaid customers onto prepaid meters.

But Mr. Kotaka explained that the only way they could go around it was constant monitoring and having a legal backing to prosecute offenders.

“Prepaid customers have the motivation to steal power but there are certain measures if put in place can take care of that. For instance if there are constant monitoring which we are bound to do coupled with the necessary judicial structure to prosecute offenders effectively and to get or secure the required conviction that could serve as a deterrent, why not, we are on a winning path,” the communications director stated.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Prepaid meters not panacea to power theft – NEDCo appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.