ECG is responsible for distributing electricity in the southern part of Ghana. This includes the Greater Accra, Central, Western, Volta, Eastern, Ahafo, Ashanti, Oti, and Western North regions. Within these regions, ECG has over 4 million customers and is with about 79% of the total customer base the largest electricity service provider in Ghana. ECG distributes around 87.5 percent of all electricity sold in Ghana.
ECG’s customer base consists of:

• Lifeline consumers that consume less than 50kWh per month
• Non-residential consumers – these customers represent 12 percent of energy consumption and 56 percent of sales revenue
• Non-lifeline residential consumers – these consumers represent 34 percent of energy consumption and 36 percent of sales revenue
• Special Load Tariff and high-voltage mines—these customers represent 48 percent of consumption and seven percent of sales revenue.

The losses designate the difference between the purchases ECG conduct from GRIDCo and the electrical energy it is able to sell to its customers. The losses consist of technical and commercial losses. The first indicate losses as a result of e.g. inefficiencies in the grid. The latter arise from costumers not paying for the entirety of the electricity consumer for example through mistakes in the bills, failure to pay or illegal power tapping.

The percentage of distribution losses (commercial and technical) by ECG in regard to the total energy purchased. Although the share has decreased since 2010 it has been on the rise again in recent times. In 2021, 30.4% of distribution losses have been recorded. To compare: for the world in the year 2014 the percentage of both transmission and distribution losses to the total electricity produced was just above 8.2% and for sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) for that same year not more than 12%.

ECG system interruption duration is measured by the average duration of interruptions recorded for the distribution system during an operational year. The regulatory benchmark for average duration of outage permitted by year in an operational area varies from 48h in metro, 72h in urban and 144h in rural areas.

Since 2015 in rural areas the average duration of interruptions recorded by ECG has decreased considerably and is now well below the regulatory benchmark of 144h. Also the metro area has not recently exceeded the designated threshold of 48h. Although, the urban area has seen a sharp increase from 2015 to 2016 to as much as 146h, overshooting the benchmark of 72h markedly, it has since then decreased again to an average duration of 52h in 2021.

ECG system average interruption reliabilty frequency can be measured by the number of times that a customer is interrupted during an operational year. The regulatory benchmark, maximum number of outages permitted per year for metro, urban and rural areas is six (6) times.

Although the average interruption frequency in all areas has dropped since 2015 and a commendable downward trend can be noted, the target of 6 interruptions per year has not been reached in any of the areas.