It has emerged that the current power rationing in parts of the country was anticipated and planned for by managers of the power sector in the country.

Power distributor, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), told Joy News last week it had had to cut down power because of supply shortfall from the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDco). GRIDCo also confirmed that the power cut was due to the failure of power generators to meet the rising demand.

But the Volta River Authority, the power generator, vehemently denied the claims and assured that it had a surplus of about 50 megawatts of power.

Head of Corporate Communications at the VRA Samuel Fletcher on Friday insisted: “We are expecting a peak load of 1970 megawatts, and this is very current information from the GRIDCo control centre, we can meet that and have a reserve of between 80 and 132 megawatts.”

He also stressed that “As far as generation is concerned, we have enough.”

However, a document made available to myjoyonline.com by energy expert, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby popularly known as Tarzan contradicts the claims by the VRA.

The document shows that out of the nine instances where GRIDCo requested the ECG to shed load between January 10 and 22, eight were due to generation problems.

“When there are power challenges, the least we expect from them is not to be economical with the truth,” Dr. Wereko-Brobby who is the chief policy analyst of Ghana Institute for Public Policy Options stated.

The consumers are interested in knowing the truth, he said, and warned public institution against “protecting their narrow interests”.

He bemoaned the fact that the VRA is experiencing “normal operational problem” but officials there have not been truthful with consumers because they want to protect their jobs.

He however conceded that because politicians always want to look good, once the technocrats reveal the truth, their jobs are put on the line.

The energy expert also challenged politicians to have the political will to charge the right tariffs if they want independent power producers to come on board to improve Ghana’s energy production.

Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Inusah Fuseini, who is a former deputy Energy Minister, suggested that it is time private investors are allowed to bring in their own liquefied gas in a deregulated system to feed the existing thermal plants and others being built.

He said the private sector should even be given the chance to transport energy so that the distributor would have a choice to select the reliable firm that would provide constant power to its consumers.

 

REQUESTED LOADSHEDDING BY GRIDCO FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY

 

DATE	QUANTUM      MW	GRIDCO PERSONNEL WHO CALLED/TIME	REASON GIVEN	OFF TIME	ON TIME	REMARKS
10/01/2014	200	Numutsu/10:23	Two units at Bui were down TP47 at Tema had low gas pressure. One unit was down Tema One plant down at TAPCO	10:30	18:00
10/01/2014	170	Ansah/17:43	Problem on TAPCO unit 1 One unit down at Tema	18:00	22:26
11/01/2014	110	Ockay/16:44	32G1 at Aboadze with its steam components were down Tema plant 1 was down Bui unit 3 was shut down for maintenance	18:00	22:00	At 20:04 ockay called us to pick 60MW and the rest at 20:27
14/01/2014	50	Obeng/16:41	Lost 32G1 at Aboadze 47G1 at Tema	18:00	22:00
14/01/2014	120	Obeng/17:26	They lost the only remaining unit at Bui	18:00	18:44	Kumasi was thrown off by GRIDCo at 18:17
20/01/2014	100	Debra	To enable them tie a steam turbine to the system	18:00	21:03
21/01/2014	30	Ansah/16:23	Due to challenges in generation	18:00	22:00
21/01/2014	45	Ansah/18:16	Due to failure of Asogli unit to come on line	18:20	22:00
22/01/2014	100	Yankey/16:58	Insufficient generation	18:00	22:00	The quota was reduced to 30MW by Akomea after bringing TICO unit into circuit. meanwhile Cape coast and Akwatia were put off by GRIDCO under emergency