If the current load shedding exercise is dire, residential and commercial electricity consumers in Ghana will have to brace themselves for even more calamitous outages. GRIDCO, generators of electricity in Ghana, have instructed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to shed an additional 400 megawatts across the country. ECG Public Relations Officer William Boateng, who confirmed this to Joy News’ Evans Mensah, said the situation is worse than initially imagined. Explaining the severity of the situation, Boateng said that shedding 400 megawatts of power is equivalent to cutting power to the whole of the Ashanti, Volta, Eastern and Central Regions of Ghana. Prior to this announcement, many residents and businesses were already struggling with a load management regime that has seen lights turned off at least thrice a week for many hours at a time. Ghana's industrial hub has been taken over by the sound of noisy generators, which are more expensive to operate since fuel prices increased over the weekend. According to Mr Boateng, the load shedding does not appear to be based on any timetable. Depending on the megawatts that GRIDCO says must be shed on a particular day, the lights may have to be turned off, he indicated. Asked why this round of load shedding has persisted, Boateng said the country is facing huge generation challenges that have nothing to do with distribution. He could not say when the situation would be normalised.