The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Ing. William Amuna has stated emphatically that the erratic power supply in the country is not over yet, saying the load shedding exercise has not been suspended.
‘I wouldn’t say the load shedding exercise is over but now we have enough generation to supply to the whole of Ghana, and we want to make sure that we maintain that,’ he said.
His assertions differs sharply with that of the Power Ministry.
On Wednesday, 30th December, the Ministry of Power indicated that the load shedding programme ‘in respect of electricity supply’ has come to an end.
A statement signed by the head of Public Affairs at the Ministry, said the “ministry of power wishes to inform the public that its load shedding programme in respect of electricity supply has been brought to an end”.
It went on to “express profound gratitude and appreciation to the entire citizenry and residents of Ghana for their forbearance and understanding during those difficult times”.
The Ministry further assured the public that “it shall continue to pursue policies and programs to consolidate the gains so far made in the generation and transmission of Electricity for the country”.
But GRIDco that cannot be wholly true.
Ing. Amuna of GRIDco claims power was not shed during the yuletide because there was enough power generation to man the demand.
‘As you may realise since the 24th December, 2015 we have not been shedding load, this is because, we had enough generation to man the demand that we have now,’ he stated.
Mr. Amuna hinted that an additional 50megawatts of generation will be brought into the country.
‘On the 31st December 2015 tomorrow, mid night we are bringing in additional 50megawatts and by 15th January we will have 100 megawatts, we are building up,’ he revealed.
Touching on projection of projection of power, he further assured that Ghanaians will only sleep in darkness if generators break down.
‘If we don’t have any faults with any generator in the system then we are assured that it can take us to the next barge of generators that will be brought into the system,’ he said.
Asked if there are preventive mechanisms to ensure that these generators do not go off, he explained that these are machines they operate at very high temperatures 1,500 degrees, anything could happen at anytime.
‘In the mean time, we have some generators that will be coming up very soon, by mid January we expect an additional 150 megawatts at least to add to what we have now. If that comes off stream we are more assured of availability of power,’ he indicated.
The CEO of GRIDCo emphasised that it’s important that all the generators that have come on stream lately are always on.
Speaking on Ultimate breakfast hosted by Prince Minkah, Mr. Amuna attributed the improvement in the ‘Dumsor’ to the arrival of the various power barges.
‘Introduction of Karpower shifts, commissioning of Tico steam unit, Volta River Authority (VRA) steam unit coming on that was out for some time and its back into service, with all these additions we are assured of supplying power to everybody in Ghana. So it’s very important to ensure that the generators are always on. With GRIDCO, assuming we are generating close to about 1,800 mega watts, that is the demand in Ghana. Now the generators around just match the demand, assuming one generator goes off now under fault, that means we are going to shed load,’ he said.
He anticipated that the country needs 18% of power generation reserve.
‘What we normally do is we always want you to have enough generation and an additional 18% in reserve, from our calculations we need an additional 18% in reserve to be able to confirm that if one generator goes off, then we are able to supply to everybody,’ he envisaged.
He disclosed that Akosombo power plant is running on a low level because it’s cannot meet the demand.
He encouraged Ghanaians to conserve energy, observing that people misused power during the yuletide.
‘Since 24 December, 2015 I have been round and you could see the clear misuse of power, I couldn’t sleep in my house because people were playing music at the loudest point you can ever had. Let’s educate our people to use electricity wisely so that we can supply power to everybody,’ he urged.
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