PURC exposes ECG for falsely attributing ‘dumsor’ to overloaded transformers

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has established that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) provided inaccurate reasons for the recent erratic power outages experienced by consumers.

ECG had claimed that overloaded transformers, numbering as many as 630, were causing power supply interruptions to homes and businesses. Additionally, it blamed the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) for making unplanned demands to cut supply, making it unable to provide a load management timetable for consumers.

However, according to PURC, analysis of the data submitted by ECG revealed otherwise. Out of 715 transformer details provided, only 31 were loaded less than 70%, while 595 were loaded between 70-100%, and 89 were loaded above 100%.

Furthermore, the commission found that out of 647 outage incidents between 7 pm and 11 pm, only 3 were planned outages related to transformers. The majority of outages during this period were due to load management operations by GRIDCo and faults unrelated to overloaded transformers.

“Analysis of the data submitted showed that out of 715 transformer details submitted, 31 were loaded less than 70%, 595 were loaded between 70-100% and 89 were loaded above 100%,” said the PURC.

“The data submitted by ECG was further compared to the total outage data provided by the ECG for the period January to March 18, 2024. The Commission established that 647 outage incidents occurred between 7 pm and 11 pm. Of these 647 outage incidents, only 3 were planned outages relating to transformers. The analyses showed that the majority of the outages between 7 pm to 11 pm were as a result of load management operations by GRIDCo and faults unrelated to overloaded transformers,” PURC stated in a report issued on April 15, 2024.

PURC concluded that ECG's attribution of the outages to transformer overload was not factually accurate and is currently investigating the true causes of the outages.

“ECG’s attribution of the outages between 7 pm and 11 pm to transformer overload was therefore not factually accurate,” the regulator said.

Meanwhile, former board members of ECG who served from January 1st to March 18th, 2024, have been slapped with regulatory charges totalling about GHȼ5.9 million for overseeing power outages without notifying consumers.

This includes the current ECG Managing Director, Samuel Mahama Dubik, and eight others.

Read PURC's full report here:



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