General News of Sunday, 26 January 2014

Source: peacefmonline.com

ECG unsure of areas to experience power outages

The Electricity Company of Ghana says it is not certain about the areas that will go off as it embarks on an emergency load management exercise.

Various communities in the country will experience irregular power cuts, the company (ECG) discloses.

The Public Relations Officer of ECG, William Boateng revealed this in an interview with Radio Gold.

According to him, the recent intermittent power cuts are as a result of some power supply shortfalls from the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO), power generators of the Electricity Company of Ghana, Bui Generating Plant, the Aboadze and Tema plants.

Speaking on Radio Gold, Mr. Boateng noted that due to the emergency load management exercise that the company is undertaking, unlike the national load shedding, power outages will usually occur during peak hours between 6 pm and 10 pm.

“There’s a difference between emergency load management and national load shedding...The national load shedding that we have all experienced over the years is national and it is 24hours nationwide.

“GRIDCO supplies in bulk to ECG and they take the power from different [sources]... if one unit or the other is due for maintenance or emergency situation; it means that we are going to have a deficit. And that translate directly into our system where we have to shed load during those peak hours.”

He also noted that as a result of the “off and on” situations, it has become difficult for the company to communicate and roll out its programmes.

He, however, believes the emergency situations will be resolved so as to “regularize and normalize” electricity supply to communities in the nation.