ECG hates upfront payments but wants prepaid meters

I have been watching Newsfile and I am surprised at the explanation we are getting from ECG. There is Mr. Ebenezer Baiden an Energy Economist who is trying very hard to explain the tarrif systems and it is so complicated and confusing. I am sure the masses will not get it and they will think that they are not getting the truth. I guess we should have had combination of an Energy Economist and a PR person on the programme. His explanation that prepaid metering is a complicated system is fine but they should be able to explain it to all of us.

I am an Electrical Engineer but I must say that he confused even me with this explanation. On a mass medium like, Newsfile, I guess he should have broken the message down so that we the mere mortals, like me, who are not Energy Economist will understand.

But for me what made it more difficult for me was for an Energy Economist and for that matter ECG, not to appreciate the time value of money and punish their clients who pay for power far in advance. ECG wants prepaid meters but do not want you to pay far in advance. What a paradox, someone should help me understand this.

If you prepay your power 6 months in advance and power rates are increased the amount you have prepaid is not considered and the traffis is increased to make you worse off. ECG, says that they do not compel us to come and make upfront pay way in advance, is difficult to understand.

How complex is energy as a product is, with all the energy source mix, I humbly disagree that time value of money is of no value to ECG. This is ECG who owe the generators so much and will need money to pay. Should ECG considering the fact that one of their major challenges is cash flow, not be encouraging clients to come and give them money in advance so that they do not have to go and borrow. Can ECG and VRA not use these upfront cash to pay their suppliers?

This is within a situation in which Mr. Baiden concedes that over 70% of their clients are on credit meters and a lot of them do not pay. He is rather dissuading people from wanting to pay far in advance.

I wish my clients will pay me well in advance, definitely the rates will be frozen for you. I humbly think that ECG should rethink this position. I call on the Ghana Institution of Engineers to bring ECG to a discussion to look into this?

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