The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in the first quarter of 2025, received a total of four thousand two hundred and four (4,204) complaints against the regulated distribution utilities, specifically the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), and Ghana Water Limited (GWL), as well as complaints lodged by the regulated distribution utilities against Consumers. Consequently, three thousand nine hundred and eighty-three (3,983) complaints were resolved, representing a resolution rate of 94.74%.
The Commission received two thousand three hundred and eighty-three (2,383) complaints against ECG and successfully resolved two thousand two hundred and forty-three (2,243) of the complaints, constituting a resolution rate of 94.13%.
The Complaints against NEDCo amounted to one thousand three hundred and seventy-six (1,376), with the Commission resolving one thousand three hundred and thirty-one (1,331), constituting an impressive resolution rate of 96.73%.
Consumers also lodged four hundred and twenty (420) complaints against GWL, and the Commission resolved three hundred and eighty-eight (388), achieving a resolution rate of 92.38%.
However, it is worth noting that the regulated distribution utilities also lodged twenty-five (25) complaints against their consumers, with twenty-one (21) complaints being resolved, representing a resolution rate of 84%.
The Commission, as part of its mandate and efforts to ensure regulatory responsiveness, received complaints, and categorised them into several distinct areas: Damaged Property, Payment Issues, Unlawful Disconnection, Billing Disputes, Metering Problems, Quality of Service, Consumer Service Delivery, and additional categories that do not fit into the aforementioned classification.
In the analysis of categories of complaints, the majority of the complaints lodged with the Commission were on quality of service, which amounted to three thousand seven hundred and three (3,703), representing 88.08%. The issues were frequent power outages, phase-offs, voltage fluctuations, no flow of water, pipe bursts, leakages, etc.
This was followed by the billing, which constituted two hundred and eighty-four (284), representing 6.76%. The complaints were related to overbilling, bulk billing, and billing consumers on estimates. Metering was eighty-six (86), representing 2.05%, and was mainly due to faulty meters. The rest consisted of payments, which were forty-seven (47), representing 1.12%, and Consumer Service Delivery amounting to twenty-four (24), representing 0.57%. Other complaints which could not be categorised were seventeen (17), representing 0.40%, Unlawful Disconnection were twenty-five (25), representing 0.59%, and Damaged Property amounting to eighteen (18), representing 0.43%.
The Commission would continue to carry out its mandate as set out in Section 3 of the Public Utilities Regulations. Commission Act, Act 538 (1997), which includes: 3 (c) To protect the interest of consumers and providers of utility services, 3 (d) To monitor standards of performance for the provision of utility services, 3(e) To initiate and conduct investigations into the standards of quality of service given to consumers.