GRIDCo : Power outages to be over by end of July

The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has disclosed that it will complete its ongoing projects in parts of the country by the end of July this year, to ensure that there is stable, reliable, and accessible electricity supply to customers.

According to the company, it has become necessary for the current power outages popularly called ‘dumsor’ to occur, as contractors working on those projects have required such action to be taken to enable them to complete the work on schedule.

Contributing to discussion on the state of the power sector on JoyNews’ PM Express current affairs programme,  on Monday, the Corporate Communications Manager for GRIDCo, Mr Ebenezer Amankwah said that, the projects, once completed, would lead to an upgrade of its systems, boost accessibility and reliable distribution of electricity across the country.

According to him, “There are inherent challenges within the transmission and distribution sector of the power value chain. For example, there is the need for infrastructural upgrade on transmission lines, bulk supplies points and substations.”

He mentioned the Pokuase substation, Kasoa bulk supply point, Achimota-Volta transmission lines as few of its maintenance projects, which has contributed to the ongoing power outages.

“So, these have necessitated a lot of projects that are currently ongoing and with the support of external development partners like the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), French Development Agency, and others that work with the power value chain, and these projects are spread across the country,” he explained.

Mr Amankwah said that these projects were “To boost transmission, accessibility, reliability, and distribution, and the contractors are asking for some outages at some particular phases of the projects in order to ensure completion by the first half of this year.”

Meanwhile, he indicated that the company was working together with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) to provide a timetable for load shedding.

“We are in discussion with key stakeholders like ECG and NEDCo so we can arrive at some appreciable timetable to communicate when there is the need for outages to happen to affected areas in terms of duration, and even timeline,” the Corporate GRIDCo Communications Manager said.

The Executive Director for the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ben Boakye warned that the country could end up in a power crisis if urgent measures were put in place to avert the current outages.

As such, called for improvement in the energy sector, and in the short time, provide a timetable so that people could plan towards any light out.

The Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, and former Deputy Energy Minister while bemoaning the lack of improvement of systems by GRIDCo called on the company to up its game to avert plunging the country into any power crisis.

BY FRANCIS NTOW