The Eastern Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has recovered a total of GH¢351,307.51 lost through illegal power connection between January and October this year.

This followed a special exercise carried out by the Loss Control Unit of the company.

The power had been stolen through meter tampering and bypass and unauthorized service connections.

Mr. Michael Baah, the Regional Manager, announced this at a performance review meeting held in Koforidua.

He identified illegal power connections, non-payment of bills by customers and cables theft as major challenges it had been struggling with.

Added to these were the destruction of electricity poles through bushfires and land litigation.

He indicated that there had been massive investment to extend electricity to more households in the region and said in excess of 10,000 households had been connected with power across the region, within the year.

Mr. Baah said the company had built US$1.7million mobile substation at Mpraeso to take care of the rapid load growth on the Kwahu ridge area and the Afram Plains.

It was also constructing another substation at Asamankese to serve about 40,000 customers in Asamankese, parts of Suhum, Akwatia and Nsawam districts.

He asked customers to be bold to report staff of the company who engaged in fraudulent deal.