The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Mr Jonathan Amoako-Baah has debunked claims that the company lacks funds for its expansion works hence the intermittent power outages in the country.
Early on, John Jinapor opined that GRIDCo is bankrupt following the recent power outages in some parts of the country.
However, Mr Amoako-Baah has said GRIDCo has enough funds for the maintenance works but requires external funding for bigger projects.
“We have fund enough to undertake routine maintenance, emergency maintenance. But then, for bigger projects we require external funding.”
Mr Jonathan Amoako-Baah, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana GRID Company Limited.
Mr Amoako-Baah said this at a press briefing in Accra on Thursday, April 1, 2021.
He also denied claims that GRIDCo is unable to generate as much power as required. He emphasized that GRIDCo is not experiencing any generation problem. Mr. Amoako-Baah added that the outages are a result of ongoing improvement works.
Furthermore, he stated that they have secured funds for ongoing projects at Kasoa and Pokuase, among others.
The Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh said the government has put in place a mechanism where every generator, transmitter, distributor of electricity is paid regularly.
He urged Ghanaians to bear with the government as it puts in measures to ensure the regular supply of electricity. He added that government will soon introduce a gas clearing house where more funds will be made available for suppliers of these generators.
Key projects to enhance power supply reliability
According to GRIDCo’s Director of System Operations, Mr Mark Baah, the company will carry out key projects to enhance power supply reliability in Greater Accra. Thus, only Accra and Winneba will experience power outages in the coming days.
One of the projects he mentioned is the Pokuase substation and Kasoa Bulk Supply Point installations funded by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA). Another project is the Tema-Accra transmission line reinforcement with support from the French Development Agency (AFD).
He said with the major transmission line project from Tema to Accra and to Mallam, Tema is now a major generation hub. Therefore, they need massive transmission capacity to bring out more than 1000 megawatts.
Furthermore, he said Pokuase is now going to be a hub. Tema is going to receive power evacuated from Aboadze on the 330 KV through Pokuase, he explained.
“Pokuase will now allow the ECG the flexibility to meet demand in to northern part of Accra. In case, there are challenges elsewhere in Accra, we can easily move loads to that area. So, Pokuase will improve supply reliability in that area.”
He further stated that the demand for electricity is very high in Kasoa. Hence, a substation is under construction in Kasoa. He indicated that the substation at Kasoa will be completed in August or September. Works at Pokuase will come to a completion by June, July, he added.
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