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