GRIDCo to carry out announced load reductions

Accra, June 1, GNA - The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) said on Wednesday that there would be 93occasional unannounced' load shedding to electricity consumers during peak period from 6.30 pm t 9.30 pm in parts of the country. The exercise is the result of generation deficit. A statement signed in Accra by Mr Albert Quainoo, Head of Public Relations of GRIDCo, said some communities in Ashanti, Northern and Western regions on Monday and Tuesday had no supply of electricity during the peak period as a result of generation deficit from the Volta River Authority (VRA). "The VRA is carrying out planned maintenance works on one of its uni= ts in Akosombo, which is expected to be completed by July ending, making the available reserve margin very low," GRIDCo said. It said in addition, unplanned outages on VRA's generating units in Takoradi and Tema over the last few days and the non-availability of imports from Cote d'Ivoire led to load reduction to customers during the peak period. It said if non-availability of VRA's units continues, it would periodically reduce supply to consumers in order not to compromise the stability of the entire power system.