National power transmitter, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) has blamed the recent power outages around the country on the impact that a scheduled performance testing by the West African Gas Pipeline Company undertook recently.
According to the claim, WAPCo carried out a performance test on a new regulating and metering gas stations in Tema and that gas flow challenges to these stations as a result of the test is what constrained the authorities to shut down the power supply.
However, GRIDCo claims that all the issues have been resolved and it has made transmission available for bulk power suppliers to convey to end-users.
“The issues that happened yesterday have been rectified today so as far as GRIDCO is concerned, power has been restored to all the affected bulk power supply stations. EC G must now, as part of the value chain, come to the power supply station and then distribute to the affected area,” said Ebenezer Amnakwa, Head of Public Affairs at GRIDCo.
Recently, electricity power has been fluctuating around the country leaving many frustrated and disrupting small businesses. Consumers are also terrified about the prospect of living in darkness as the deadly coronavirus- Covid-19 rages on.
Many have particularly been annoyed that the power has been going off without any prompts, with suspicion going rife that another dreaded spell of power outages, known in local parlance as ‘dumsor’ is on to Ghanaians.
According to GRIDCo however, there has not been any need to publish a power outage time table because Ghana is not in ‘dumsor’ as many believe. The problem arose from the WAPCO scheduled tests which even GRIDCo had not anticipated would disrupt power supply.
The problem has however been fixed, as at 11 am today, GRIDCO claims.
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament is not buying explanation GRIDCo that the recent power outages in the country are the cause of scheduled performance testing by the West African Gas Pipeline Company.
Ranking Member on the Energy Committee of Parliament, Hon. Adam Mutawakilu, points out that the excuse is just the latest in a long train of suchlike excuses that date all the way back to 2018.
In a radio interview monitored by WhatsUp News, Hon. Mutawakilu said the excuses are dangerous in the face of Covid-19. “We will be able to curb this coronavirus pandemic when people stay at home. Your ability to provide them with enough and reliable power will go a long way to help curb the coronavirus. But what are we experiencing? Dumsor is at its peak today; they put lights off and on at any time they want without notice and that is why I am calling on the President that he should officialize the ‘dumsor’ and come out with a time table so that we know…”