NAPO: We’re working to keep the lights on

The Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has said that all stakeholders in the energy sector including the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) are working assiduously to keep the lights on.

According to him, the reconstruction of some substations and transmission lines in Ghana has resulted in power outages across the country.

Also, he added that some of the transmission lines under reconstruction are extremely obsolete and therefore, causing outages in parts of the country.

Addressing journalists on Wednesday (13 April) on developments in the energy sector, Dr Prempeh said “for some of the lines that we’re changing, they are so outdated that they are congested and it’s causing trips in parts of the country. So, it’s true that parts of the country are experiencing intermittent power charges, because of a combination of factors; the work that we’re doing and the power itself giving up.

“So, what keeps the voltages stable is the new Kasoa substation that we went to see, it is a machine called LVC that keeps the power stable. The charges of those machines also started burning so, we started dropping voltages from Kasoa to parts of Accra and we’re working hard to maintain those voltages.

“We’re going to work around the clock to ensure that we sort it out so that we keep the lights on,” he said.

Listen to Prempeh in the attached audio below:

Reconstruction

On (April 8), the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) in a statement said parts of Accra will experience power outages for the next 11 weeks.

The outage is to enable the power transmission company, the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) to embark on the re-construction of transmission lines from the Achimota substation through Avenor to the Mallam substation.

GRIDCo said the re-construction involves taking out of service, two 161kV transmission lines, hence the power outage.

“The work involves taking out of service, two 161KV transmission lines (I.e. Achimota – Accra Central and Achimota – Mallam) from Saturday 9 April 2022 to Thursday 30 June 2022,” the statement said.

“The outage is to enable GRIDCo to upgrade the transmission capacity on each line. This important exercise is to meet the growing demand for electricity in Accra and its environs.”

Nicholas Brown

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