Studies have shown that prepaid meters are not necessarily a well-received innovation in some segments of society, to the extent that in some cases, society as a whole, is reluctant to implement the system. A survey examined the main characteristics of households that switched to prepaid meters and explored their satisfaction with the system. A total of 90 users were surveyed: 47% stated that they had adopted prepaid meters, while the rest indicated they had remained with the conventional system.
Prepayment systems have been proposed as an innovative solution to the problem of affordability in utilities services. In spite of being a popular system in European and African countries, the use of such mechanisms remains controversial. Among the main arguments in favor of its dissemination are the advantages concerning lower costs of arrears, running costs and finance charges for the service provider and the better allocation of resources it implies for users.
The arguments against prepaid meters are based on the higher cost of the technology and the possibility of self-disconnection of low-income users.
However, proponents have always argued that there could not have been any better option.
On the 26th of Feb, patrons all over the country could not access their prepaid credit meters because of a problem with the “mother server”. Obviously, this brought business to a halt, with customers who could not afford alternative power supplies being at the mercy of the shabby services by providers.
Coincidentally, the Director of Customer Service at the Electricity Company of Ghana, Dr Smart Yeboah says if you feel the speed at which your prepaid credit meter is exhausting is appalling, probably, you have to change your mindset and the problem would be solved.
In an interview with Xfm 95.1, a privately owned commercial radio station in Accra, Dr Smart Yeboah noted that the ECG’s office is daily inundated with complaints about how fast credit on prepaid meters are exhausted.
However, he attributed the problem to the perception of electricity consumers who just migrated from the credit meters to prepaid ones. According to him, there are two issues involved.
“First, is one’s perspective; if you are on the credit meter, you get your bill 30 days after it has been read. Therefore, the feeling of relating what you have consumed and what you now are going to pay, weeks after it has been consumed is not an issue.”
“But when you are on prepaid, it is an hour by hour, or minute by minute basis, because at any time, you do not want to go off. So your whole set up gets attuned to the link between the consumption and credit on it”.
Dr Smart Yeboah also attributed the perceived problem to the very old credit meters that consumers were then using.
He said because most of the credit meters had neared the end of their lifespan, readings were not accurate, making the ECG lose billions of Ghana cedis. He described prepaid meters as a blessing that have come to correct these anomalies even though to most consumers, they are a curse.
“Most of the credit meters we used were getting towards the end of their lifespan and a lot of them were not reading accurately. Let us assume that you were on a credit meter, and your true consumption was 100. And because of the age, wear and tear etc, the meter was recording 75; it means ECG was losing 25. Once we have replaced the meter with the prepaid, which is electronic and has a better stability and accuracy, obviously, we will record the 100, instead of 75”.
So to feel otherwise, that prepaid meters are as good as postpaid ones, Dr Smart Yeboah suggested that electricity consumers change their whole mindset.
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ECG Attributes Problems With Prepaid Meters To Consumer Perceptions