Every failed ECG prepaid night that starts with “I think the number is…” ends with someone else’s lights. The meter number is the identity the vending system encrypts into an STS token. It is printed on the meter, almost always repeated on the indoor CIU sticker, and it is typically about eleven digits in Ghana prepaid practice. It is not the twenty-digit token, not your phone number, not the plot number, and not the faded “ECG” scribble in a tenant WhatsApp from two landlords ago.
You need that number before you open ECG PowerApp, dial *226#, visit a vendor, or use the everyday path this blog prefers: *714*22# or ewalepay.com. This blog does not process payments. Tokens are sold by ECG channels and licensed checkouts such as ECG PowerApp, *226#, vendors, and Ewale (*714*22# or ewalepay.com). A checkout that shows the registered name after you type the number is your last adult supervision. If the name is not this house, abort.
Read the metal, then the CIU, then an old receipt
Stand at the meter. On pole-mounted and wall-mounted units the number is on a factory plate or printed on the front. Take a photo in daylight once and keep it in a family album labelled with the house. Dust, rust, and a tenant who painted the corridor are why people invent numbers at 9pm.
If you have a CIU — the small indoor keypad — the same meter number is usually on a sticker on the back or the front bezel. That is the number you type into USSD while standing in the kitchen. Do not invent a second identity because the CIU serial looks similar. Serials and meter numbers can both be numeric. The vending number is the one ECG registered, the one that returns a name.
Last valid receipt (PowerApp transaction, *226# SMS, vendor slip, Ewale SMS) is a good cross-check if you are sure that receipt was for this house. Using last year’s tenant’s screenshot is how you fund their new place in Ashaiman.
What is not a meter number
The token is ~20 digits. Typing it into a buy-power menu as if it were the meter will fail or, worse, hit a bizarre match. The MoMo wallet is a phone number. The postpaid account is a different ECG product; putting it in a prepaid field is how people “buy power” and still have a keypad that wants STS. The GPS address or digital address is not vending identity.
Some CIUs show scrolling screens with remaining units, last token, and IDs. Copy the ID that matches the plate, not a tariff code. If two numbers on the glass are both eleven-ish digits, photograph both and use the one that returns the correct registered name on a zero-risk confirm step — every serious checkout shows a name before PIN.
Compounds, boys’ quarters, and two boxes
A compound with one pole and two prepaid meters is a trap. Kitchen versus chamber. Landlord versus tenant. Walk with the person who pays. Point at the box. Read the number aloud. Save it in the phone as “House A meter” not “ECG”. When you vend on *714*22#, the name must match the occupant you intended.
Shared single meters have one number. There is no “half meter number”. Social rules about who buys are a different article. Technically there is one STS identity.
Where to enter it, once you have it
ECG PowerApp: add prepaid meter, wait for name, save. Next time you tap a saved item — still glance at the name. *226#: ECG’s USSD; register / enter the number as their menu asks. Vendor: they type what you dictate — dictate slowly. Telco menus (*170#, *110#): pick prepaid electricity, not a random biller.
Preferred everyday: *714*22# or ewalepay.com. You type the meter number, you read the name, you pay MoMo once, you receive twenty digits. Feature phones work. OTP for PowerApp is irrelevant. This is why we tell households to remember Ewale even though ECG’s own doors are real.
If you cannot find the number because the plate is destroyed, that is an ECG visit (0302 611 611), not a guess. Guessing eleven digits is theft or charity, randomly assigned.
Store it like a spare key
Photo. Paper on the fridge. Phone contact. Do not store it only inside PowerApp — when OTP fails you will not open the app to read the number you need to type on USSD. Do not store it only with the landlord if you are the tenant who actually vends at night. Do not send it into Facebook “ECG groups” asking strangers to buy for you.
FAQ
Is the meter number always 11 digits?
Often about eleven in Ghana prepaid practice, but read the plate. Length folklore is how people drop a leading digit. The registered name after lookup is the real test.
Can I look it up with my phone number?
ECG PowerApp or ECG may show saved meters for an account you registered. That is not magic for a tenant who never registered. Physical read is still king.
The CIU number and the pole number differ.
Stop. You may be looking at a serial versus a vending ID, or a CIU paired wrongly. Confirm with a name lookup on ${E} or ${A} before paying. Call ECG if they disagree.
If it still fails
- Typed token into meter field: Twenty digits in an eleven-digit hole. Clear and start from the plate photo.
- Copied from a neighbour “because we share a pole”: Sharing a pole is not sharing a meter number.
- Landlord WhatsApp from 2022: Meters get replaced. Read today’s metal.
Find the number on the meter or CIU, confirm the registered name, then buy. ECG PowerApp, *226#, vendor, or the fridge code *714*22# — all of them will vend to whatever digits you typed. Make those digits the ones on your wall.