Thank you, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC)!

At a time when consumers are shouting blue murder about tariff increases, it might strike one as odd that I'm advocating a praise!

I certainly have not forgotten the load management programme of 2006 that saw many Ghanaians rationing electricity, because of the over-dependence on Ghana's hydro-power at the Akosombo dam, which was running out. But I do not also forget the very helpful people at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC), who have been instrumental in maintaining some level of sanity when the lights went out.

Four years down the line, they continue to be as helpful as they always have been. There is one particular person by the name "Phillip", whose surname I do not know, who always does his very best to address any concerns about electricity.

Two days ago, the lights went off in our area--apparently, Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG)-- was doing unannounced maintenance on a tripped wire. I called PURC, on 0302.240.046 to speak with the same Phillip who said he would investigate for me, even if I had reported it to the ECG hotline on 0302.611.611.

He asked me to remind him of my phone number, which I did.

Within 10 minutes, he had called to let me know he had contacted the district engineer of my area, and that they were aware of a problem. They were not promising anything, but they would restore the lights shortly.

Around two hours later, the lights were back. I know as I got a text message from home.

Interestingly, the following morning, I greeted my desk with a call from PURC, wondering whether my lights came back the evening before!

If that is not efficiency, I don't know what is!

Enjoy your weekend and keep safe.

If you're in Ghana and your lights go off, please don't tell me you don't know what numbers to call on a weekday (from 9am to 16h30), and throughout the week!

It's PURC, then ECG Hotline on 0302.611.611.

When the BBC Worldservice Called from London...When in Accra

Let me get this straight. For the past few days, the BBC Africa Service has been travelling through the sub-region in a bus to get a feel of the so-called football fever in the run-up to the FIFA 2010 world cup in South Africa.

The "Africa Have Your Say" programme is live on air in Africa every Tuesday to Thursday. The "Africa Have Your Say" bus started off in Cote d'Ivoire, landed at the Western region of Ghana's capital--Takoradi--on Tuesday, Cape Coast on Wednesday, and landed in Accra on Thursday. They even had a live session of the programme yesterday looking at electricity provision

It is to that end that one Ishta Kutesa Nandi contacted me asking:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ishta Kutesa
Date: 2010/6/3
Subject: Message via your Google Profile: Electricity in Ghana
To: ekbensah@gmail.com


Hello Emmanuel,

My name is Ishta and I'm contacting you from the BBC World Service in London. I've read quite a few of your blog posts and I find your views on utility provision in Ghana quite interesting. I'd love to talk to you about possibly taking part in a live debate we're holding this afternoon. Please reply with a phone number I can contact you on so that we can discuss this further.

Kind regards,
Ishta

So, after a response and exchange of emails, I got a call shortly after. We talked for some 15 minutes, in which she asked a whole host of questions and asked for some solutions that I see for the way forward:

1. the government should continue to invest in the old electricity sytstem, which has been under-invested for many years

2. the government should establish more sub-stations to cater for a rapidly-growing population

3. ghanaians should have at their disposal a FREE hotline--not one where you pay landline rates on a mobile!

4. we should be getting streetlights as every blessed customer pays for them

5. if Ghana can provide our neigbouring countries (Cote d'ivoire and Togo) with electricity, we ought to have regular provision HERE in Ghana!

Ishta was supposed to call back and help me make inputs into the live session, but I never got that call. I know a fellow blogger--Golda--who was there at the live session, but didn't hear her name on air.

Whatever the case, a few ghanablogging members got recognised--and for that I am happy. To be recognised by no less than the BBC on the issues that concern us most--electricity; streetlights; utility provision, etc--is the biggest boost anyone can get.

Never mind writing about our own lives...

Things Done in Accra When You're Dead...

Sometimes, when darkness falls, and the lights go off in parts of Accra, it is as if you're dead...to the world.

Even when you have alternative arrangements to obtaining power, the point is not lost on you on the astronomical amounts you expend to get your fridge and other electrical gadgets working through a generator.

Last Friday night at 23h30, the electricity went off our place and the next-door neighbour's. I know because when I went for a walk with Fenix, the houses on the lane--bar ours--had their lights on. A few houses on other lanes on the Estate had the generator running, so we could tell they were off.

That evening, I called the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on 021.611.611. They call it a hotline, but I would prefer a hotline that's free, thankyou!

Anyways, I got the usual Welcome to the ECG Hotline. Please hold for a service operator.

Within minutes, a young lad was behind the line asking me key questions about the time the electricity went off; the location of the query; and my name. All was explained, and he accordingly commiserated with me, apologising for the electricity having gone off, but they would work "as quickly" as they could to restore it, but they would have to register the case in their database and forward it to an engineer.

Thanks were exchanged and I went off, slightly assured.

I woke up Saturday morning to beads of sweat dripping down my face, for the electricity had not come back.

A quick call much later in the day, around midday, revealed that ECG had dispatched the engineer around 8.30am, and he was doing his rounds.

I was assured "by the end of the day", we would have our power.

The end of the day--read 6, 7, 8, 9 pm--came. There was still no electricity.

A frustrated yours truly called yet again expressing veiled anger and disappointment at the promises offered. Entreaties and commiserations were expressed by the hot line staff, pleading with me to hold on, and that they were working on it "seriously" for us.

"Look," I went on "is it because it has not affected the whole Estate that a good 24 hours, I would have to call to have someone check my electricity? What is going on? Is it because it is a holiday that the workers have also gone on holiday?"

The same supplication-apology-assurance formula followed true to form, and I subsequently calmed down.

The next day, I was at boiling point; if a thermometer had been by me, it might have exploded!

A poor lady got the end of my wrath, expressed through more harsh and stronger words than the above for some fifteen minutes. I eventually calmed down, and thanked her for understanding the urgency of my request, appealing almost to her that almost 36 hours of electricity was totally unacceptable.

An hour or two later, I spotted a van with workmen in blue overalls cruising surreptitiously down the lane. I informed the folks that I suspect ECG were only now attending to the problem.

On a bloody Sunday! And 36 hours later?

We all shrugged, chuckled, and silently hoped that Sunday would be the last night without electricity.

A couple of hours later, the electricity was restored.

I cannot say I had a relaxing Mayday celebration. Frankly, it sucked. There is precious little one can do without electricity.

It truly is like you're dead...to the world.

Great Idea ECG, Shame about the Delivery

The lights came back on to a quietly-jubilant neighbourhood around 5pm-ish, after a rather hellish couple of hours without it. All I can say is that whether you have a generator or not, the point is at a time when global prices have not gone southwards, lights off is a totally unnecessary enterprise.

So, when the saviour of Electricity Company of Ghana's call centre , which is an 18-hr operation that can be contacted at 021.611.611, advertised last week in the main daily GRAPHIC that it was going to service Ghanaians--albeit in Greater Accra and Tema for now--you had hope that they would do more than tell you a problem "has been reported" about the electricity. Which is exactly what the operator did this morning when it went off. They asked my name, making me feel instinctively that they would get back to me.

They didn't.

This is inconsistent with the staff of ECOBANK's call centre(toll-free), which has almost always gotten back to me on a query. Even the members of staff at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC) call you back after investigating an electricity complaint

Regrettably, it is attitudes like ECG's that perpetuate the myth that the private sector is everyone's saviour, whilst the public is red-tape driven.

At a time when the State is showing a resurgence even in the US, ECG better sit up fast!

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