Space FM, Sunyani - The Northern Electricity Department Ladies Association,(NEDLAS), has undertaken an educational exercise on the New Ghana Cedi for market women of the Sunyani Central Market. The exercise forms part of activities marking the year long celebrations of NEDLAS under the the theme, "Energy Conservation-VRA and You".

The market women were taken through topics including, Purchasing Power with the Redenominated Cedi, Energy Conservation, Illegal Connection and Complaints Procedures. Others were, Power Outages, New Service Procedures and Load Shedding.

The Vice President for the Sunyani Area of NEDLAS, Mrs.Angela Ofeidua, took the market women through the buying of power with the new Ghana cedi.

Mrs. Annette Adompre, advised consumers to use electrical gadgets with automatic regulators since that can conserve energy. She cautioned the public against the use of electric cookers because they consumes too much power.Mrs Adompre again advised consumers to wait for about ten minutes after power on before switching on electrical appliances.

On load shedding, Mrs Adompre explained that households and offices within areas of essential service providers, are usually exempted from load shedding programmes. She added that areas where hospitals, millitary barracks and water companies are located, must not be affected by load shedding programmes.

Speaking on illegal connections, Madam Yvonne Nkebe, urged the public to report illegal connections known as " U Touch", to VRA for rewards.

The Brong Ahafo PRO for the VRA, Mr Alhassan Abaaba, appealed to consumers to use energy wisely by switching off all electrical appliances, reporting all illegal connections to authorities and ironing all clothes at a time.He also urged consumers to protect their electrical appliances with stabilizers.

The PRO assured the public that the VRA is working tirelessly on decentralising the purchasing of power to ease the burden on consumers travelling from afar to buy power from the main VRA premesis.

The Vice president of the Sunyani Market Women Associatrion, Mrs. Grace Ayensu Baah, commended the VRA for educating them on the new Ghana cedi. She said the exercise has augmented similar exercises carried out by Space FM and the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) some months ago.

She advised her fellow market women to conserve energy in their homes to help save the Akosombo Dam.She also appealed to them to handle the new Ghana cedi with care to ensure that it lasts longer.