Power cuts to industrial zones will affect industries – AGI

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Industries (AGI) Seth Twum Akwaboah has said the extension of the load shedding exercise to industrial enclaves will have an adverse effect on industries.

He, nonetheless, acknowledged that there is little the power producers and distributors can do to help the situation.

State-owned distributor, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on Monday started cutting supply to industrial areas.

Mr Twum Akwaboah told STARR BUSINESS’ Fred Dzakpata in an interview that: “With the decision to cut down supply of energy to industry, it will definitely have an effect, but the question is do we have a choice?”

“We are not generating enough and once you are not generating enough, we must be able to ration whatever we have to make everybody a bit comfortable, so under the circumstance, we don’t seem to have much choice,” he said.

He said the AGI has “always made the point that industry should be given priority.”

“The previous arrangement we had with ECG was that industrial enclaves were being exempted from the power rationing and that has been going on, but now it appears they are still having challenges with supply so they have to cut down the volume of power they give to the industries so they don’t seem to have any choice,”

Ghana is currently experiencing a power deficit as a result of the shutdown of some units at the hydro and thermal stations across the country. The VRA has warned that the situation could get worse before it gets better.