Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Energy, has professed some reasons for the recent power outages (locally known as ‘dumsor’) in parts of Accra, insisting that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has not been shedding load.
Responding to questions on the floor of Parliament, Dr Prempeh maintained that certain areas that had hitherto been residential have become commercial centres, increasing electricity consumption.
“The question was asked over two months ago…No, ECG is not undertaking load-shedding as at the time the question was asked. Consumers were experiencing outages due to a number of factors. That included localised outages due to overload online and transformers.
“There are certain areas in this country where all of a sudden, the number of residents and businesses have accumulated, parts of East Legon which was purely residential area have now become a business district, increasing power consumption.
“Thereby hampering the existing lines there, so the transformers and lines had to be updated. Outages to the average capacity of overloaded lines and transformers.”
Moreover, the Manhyia South lawmaker stated that at the time the questionnaire was put out, CenPower had an emergency, which meant a complete shutdown, losing 40 megawatts immediately.
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“That also contributed and the plant maintenance on Amandi power was also ongoing at the same time,” he said.
He continued, “The emergency outages sometimes requested by GRIDCo have also contributed, so there were myriads of factors that had unfortunately happened, that is causing the power outages in different times.”
“The reason ECG said they were not load-shedding is because most of the incidents were not planned and so they couldn’t have come out with a pre-programme to say they were loading.”
