General News of Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Source: etvghana.com

Load shedding exercise not in schedule; PURC to summon ECG

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) will in the course of the month schedule a meeting with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on the ongoing load shedding exercise.

Prompted by the shortage of gas to power the country’s thermal plants, the ECG announced a load shedding timetable to ensure an equal and fair distribution of power supply to consumers.

However, consumers have complained about the ECG’s inability to fully implement the rationing programme as scheduled.

It is for this and other reasons that the PURC is to schedule a meeting with the ECG to address the imbalances in the distribution of the limited commodity or face possible sanctions.

Head of Public Relations at the PURC told e.tv Ghana news that “We are having this meeting to bring out issues that will help mitigate the impact of the load shedding on consumers. We have received complaints from consumers that the ECG is not adhering to the load shedding exercise. Some have also seen that there is some sort of faults in the system. For instance if you go off for 24 hours, certainly, it is not load shedding.”

The commission will also be seeking to know when the West Africa Gas Pipe Line would finally be put in good shape.