We are in talks with ECG, NEDCo for ‘dumsor’ timetable - GRIDCo
- Recent power outages have ignited fears that the country is back to the days of lingering outages
- Despite denying that ‘dumsor’ is back, GRIDCo says it is in talks for a timetable for power cuts
- GRIDCO maintains that there is enough capacity, but, maintenance works forced it to develop the timetable
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The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) is in talks with ECG and NEDCo to roll out a timetable for power outages across the country.
Source: UGC
This is because there will be more outages as GRIDCo continues the upgrade of its systems.
The upgrade is expected to be completed in July.
“The contractors are asking for some outages at some particular places so these are the areas where we are looking at a discussion with some key stakeholders like ECG and NEDCo so we can arrive at some appreciable timetable to communicate where there is the need for outages to happen,” Corporate Communications Manager at GRIDCo, Ebenezer Amankwah, stated on Joy News’ PM: Express.
Places that could see maintenance work in the coming weeks include Pokuase sub-station, Kasoa bulk supply point, Achimota-Volta transmission line among others.
Amankwah’s disclosure is coming weeks after he said the country was not back to the debilitating days of lingering erratic power supply, christened ‘Dumsor’.
“Dumsor is not back. There's enough generation capacity to meet demand,” he stated in an interview monitored by YEN.com.gh on Morning Starr on Starr FM on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) called for transparency about the recent erratic power supply in the country.
“We think we haven’t had full details about what happened at the Obuasi and Prestea lines and what caused the tripping,” Fritz Moses, a research analyst with the Institute stated.
In other news, former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, warned that Ghana’s economy is fast drifting towards a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC).
Ghana’s total public debt increased from Ghs122billion to Ghs291.6billion as of the end of December 2020.
The ballooning public debt stock was attributed to the current coronavirus pandemic, the banking sector cleanup exercise among others.
The fiscal impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Ghanaian economy was Ghs19.7 billion, that of the financial sector clean-up was Ghs21billion with the cost of excess capacity charges to IPPs standing at Ghs12billion, according to the 2021 budget statement presented to Parliament on Friday, March 12, 2021.
But for these factors, the country’s public debt would have been hovering around Ghs238.9billion representing 58.7% of GDP, the Akufo-Addo administration said.
Commenting on the figures, the former Finance Minister painted a disturbingly grim picture of the Ghanaian economy under the stewardship of President Akufo-Addo.
He said the administration’s economic management team needs to fasten its hold over the rising debt to avoid an unexpected economic crush.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
