Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Mr Benjamin Boakye says he has observed that the infrastructure of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) are currently under enormous pressure.
This, he said, has arisen because of the increase in demand as against the failure to procure bigger equipment to meet the growing population.
“Every year, Energy Commission plans and they tell you the rate of growth of demand in this country. So, whether it is Adenta, Madina, Cantonment, Airport, every locality is growing in demand.
“So, the transformer you will have will not take you two or three years to be able to supply power to the same locality. Because people are buying new equipment; new businesses are opening up in those areas and power demand is growing. You need to bring a bigger capacity equipment to be able address the challenge with demand growth.”
Benjamin Boakye
He further indicated that, the Energy Commission has failed to get additional equipment over time so now,;there is too much pressure on GRIDCo’s infrastructure which is causing the trips.
“How to deal with that is; when you think the load is going beyond the demand, then you cut some people off.
“That is why it is important that once you can monitor in your system. To know that within Adenta community the demand is moving to a certain threshold; that makes it impossible for you to wheel power to them. You had to tell ECG to cut some people off so that you can maintain the balance of the grid.”
Benjamin Boakye
Power Outages Due To Detected Faults
However, The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has disclosed that the reasons for the current power outages in the country is due to detected faults in the system.
The Director for Systems Operation, Mark Baah explaining the issue indicated that some faults have been detected in the transmission and distribution network due to the increase in demand.
He also added that the frequent interruption of gas supply has impeded the productivity of the Volta River Authority (VRA) in generating power.
“Our power system has grown in terms of demand. For the first time this year, we have crossed 3, 000 Megawatt in terms of demand.
“There are also issues within the electrical network transmission; and distribution which sometimes causes outages and there are issues within the gas sector which also affects us. So, when the lights go off, this could be the various reasons that might have occurred.”
Mark Baah
The Operation Director further indicated that the Bui Hydroelectric Power plant which supplies electricity to central parts of Ghana has been shut down forcing every power to be generated from the coastal belt. This, according to him, has put a strain on the sector. pressure
Mark Baah also hinted that government is putting together a number of projects to check power challenges the country is facing with energy especially the recent intermittent power outages happening in some parts of the country.
