General News of Tuesday, 6 April 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Power outages will end in September - GRIDCo assures

Some parts of the country have been experiencing power outages Some parts of the country have been experiencing power outages

The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) has assured Ghanaians that the current intermittent supply of electricity which has been suggested to be 'dumsor', will be solved by September when the upgrade of the system is completed.

According to GRIDCo, the current disruption of power is as a result of ongoing works to upgrade and improve service delivery of power to the country.

This project is expected to be completed by 2021 with all things being equal, if we do not have any hindrances then we are going to complete it by September,” Director of System Operations at GRIDCO, Michael Baah assured.

He explained that “Whenever we are constructing a line like this, we normally meet some crossings like ECG lines and maybe obstacles like houses. For the ECG line because it is also an electrical system, we must make sure we give an outage to be able to cross the line, else there would be an induction and people might suffer from that.”

Mr. Baah who spoke to the press when the Energy Minister paid a working visit to the power distribution company also indicated that they will work around the clock to ensure that there would be no dumsor over the weekend.

On his part, the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, declined the assertions that Ghana had returned to the days of regular power cuts.

He prayed to Ghanaians to be patient as efforts are being implemented to ensure an improved supply of power.

“In 2016, the government of the day told us it was a generation problem. This is not a generation problem. This is not about fuel, so how can it be dumsor? Dumsor is planned and a timetable is rolled out,” the Minister said on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.

He added, “bear with the contractors, so they finish in time, so we can enjoy the improvement we so desire. We have systems where lights are flickering, voltages are low and the line is down and that is exactly why we have what we have”.

Parts of the country have been experiencing power cuts for the past few weeks, a situation which has got people asking if the country has returned to the days of dumsor.