Thieves have raided the Tafo sub-station of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and stolen seven spans of copper conductors connected on high tension poles for power generation to many parts in the Eastern Region.
The Tafo sub station supplies electricity power to Anyinam, Kwabeng, Bunso, Nsutam, Ettokrom, Osino, Osiem, Tafo and all its surrounding communities and some parts of Koforidua, and as a result those areas have experienced power outage for the past three days.
In the process some of the high tension poles from which the copper conductors were cut and stolen collapsed to the ground, thereby complicating the problem to restore power to the affected areas.
Mr Kobina Arthur-Forson, Regional Director of the ECG, who took media men round the site where the copper conductors had been stolen from, said in a spate of three weeks, three of such thefts had been recorded in the area and cost the company about GH¢50, 000.
He explained that the seven spans in plain terms was about 1,500 metres of copper wires stolen and would cost the company huge amount of money, time and expertise to restore power to the affected areas.
According to the Regional Director, the situation was forcing the company to change from copper conductors to aluminium conductors since the thieves were interested in the copper wires for other businesses.
He said the change was capital intensive and to restore power to the affected areas in the short term, the company since last Tuesday had combined teams of engineers and experts from the various sub stations to fix the stolen seven spans with aluminium conductors.
Mr Arthur-Forson disclosed that the theft was very rampant at the Nkawkaw area, and that in the last month five thefts of the copper conductors had been recorded, costing the company huge losses in terms of revenue generation and cost of fixing the damage.
He appealed to the chiefs and the people in the communities to be vigilant and report any person seen around high tension poles to the police for action.
The Director, who took time to explain the power outage to the communities affected along the Tafo-Bunso road, told them that the company made money when there was power supply and therefore the frequent power outages were not deliberate.
He said already the company was making huge improvements in their equipment, especially the changing from mono-feeders to integrated feeders that would guarantee power supply all the time to customers even in times of system failures.
The Regional Director said ECG's commitment to efficient service delivery to the people needed the support of the public, adding, that the ECG needed to increase its tariffs to take care of some of those emergency situations.
The Chief of Ettokrom, one of the affected communities, Nana Kwame Asiedu, told the ECG Director that because of the rampant theft of the wires on the high tension poles that passed through the town, they had formed community police that monitor people's activities around the poles.
He said as part of the measures, strangers who loiter about in the town were searched and if any cutting equipment were found on them they were handed to the police.
He assured the ECG of their support in addressing the situation.