Electricity in Accra is supplied by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), at 230 volts and 50 hertz, through Type D and Type G sockets — the same three-pin plugs used in the United Kingdom, Nigeria and India.

Tariffs are set by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, which reviews them quarterly.

And then there is dumsor.

Dumsor

Dumsor comes from Akan: dum (off) and sɔ (on). Off-on. It is the word Ghanaians use for the rolling power cuts that have come and gone in waves for decades.

Severity varies year to year with generation capacity, fuel supply and the state of the national grid. In a bad period, a published load-shedding timetable circulates and areas lose power on a rota. In a good period, you get occasional unplanned outages like anywhere else.

Either way, plan for it:

  • Keep torches and power banks charged. A dead power bank during an outage is a small, entirely avoidable misery.
  • Surge protection matters. Power returning after an outage can spike and destroy electronics. Use surge-protected extension boards for anything expensive, and unplug during storms.
  • A rechargeable lamp or two is standard household equipment.
  • Know your fridge. A full freezer holds temperature far longer than an empty one.
  • Larger households and businesses run a generator or an inverter. An inverter with a battery is quieter, cleaner and enough for lights, fans, routers and laptops. A generator handles a fridge and an air conditioner, and annoys the neighbours.

Prepaid meters

Most Accra households are on prepaid meters. You buy credit in advance, the meter counts down, and when it reaches zero the power stops. There is no bill and no grace period.

Buying credit

The easiest route is MoMo. Every network supports ECG top-ups, and you can do it from anywhere at any hour — which matters, because meters run out at 2am.

You can also buy at ECG offices, at vendor kiosks and through the ECG Power app.

You need your meter number. Photograph it now and keep the picture on your phone. Do not rely on being able to read the meter in the dark during the outage it just caused.

After paying, you receive a token — a long numeric code by SMS. Type it into the meter keypad. The credit appears immediately.

Check the meter is actually yours

In shared compounds, meters are sometimes mixed up, and it is entirely possible to spend a year buying credit for a neighbour. Confirm the meter number by watching your own consumption move it. Before renting, establish which meter serves the unit and whether it is shared with the landlord.

Tariffs

Residential tariffs are banded by consumption. A lifeline rate applies below 30 kWh a month and is heavily subsidised; above that, the rate rises.

Including levies, budget roughly ₵1.60 per kWh above the lifeline band. Treat that as an order of magnitude, not a quotation — the PURC revises tariffs quarterly and the bands change with them.

What actually uses the credit

In descending order of appetite:

  1. Air conditioning. By a very large margin. One AC unit running overnight will dominate your entire bill.
  2. Water heater, if you have one.
  3. Fridge and freezer, which run continuously.
  4. Electric kettle, iron, microwave. Brief but hungry.
  5. Fans, which cost a fraction of an AC unit and are why most of Accra uses them.
  6. Lights, laptops, phones, routers. Almost nothing, comparatively.

If your credit disappears faster than you expect, the answer is almost always the air conditioner.

Postpaid meters

Some older properties and most commercial premises are postpaid: you consume, then a bill arrives. Bills can be paid by MoMo, at ECG offices or through the app.

The risk with postpaid is disconnection for arrears — particularly if you have moved into a property where the previous occupant left a balance. Check the account status before you move in, in writing.

Common problems

No power, but you have credit. Check whether the whole street is out. If neighbours have power, check your breaker before calling ECG.

Your token will not enter. Tokens are tied to a specific meter. If you bought against the wrong meter number, the credit went to that meter. Call ECG with the transaction reference.

Credit vanishing quickly. Either a large appliance, or a fault, or you are paying for someone else’s meter. Read the meter at a fixed time on two consecutive days with everything off to see whether it is still counting down.

A “faulty” meter. ECG will test a meter on request. There is a process and sometimes a fee.

Shared meter disputes. Common in compound houses, and unpleasant. The solution is a separate meter, which the landlord must arrange. Raise it before signing, not after.

Reporting a fault

ECG has a call centre and an app for fault reporting. Have your meter number and your GhanaPostGPS digital address ready — the digital address is how they find you, since the street name will not help.

For a downed line or anything sparking, treat it as an emergency and keep well clear. Emergency number: 112. Fire service: 192.

Solar

Solar is increasingly common in Accra, and the arithmetic works better here than in most places: strong year-round sun, expensive grid power above the lifeline band, and a real cost to outages.

A modest panel and battery setup sized for lights, fans, a router and laptops is far cheaper than one sized to run air conditioning, and covers the great majority of what an outage actually interrupts.