Policy Analyst, Dr Stephen Manteaw has berated the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for its silence on recent power outages in the country. 

Dr Manteaw says the Commission is reneging on its responsibilities at protecting the consumer’s interest as it is mandated to do by law.

According to him, this lackadaisical attitude is most undesirable to consumers and must be called out. 

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story with Evans Mensah on Monday, July 10, Dr Manteaw said the PURC’s continuous silence on such matters is becoming worrying. 

“For me, what is most disappointing in all of these is the silence of the PURC on this matter. We are yet to hear from PURC on this matter. Let me put on record that the PURC is independent arbiter responsible for the protection of consumer interest and to ensure that we get the best of service.”

“So is there has been this major challenge in the power sector and how many hours now, they are yet to tell us anything. Then for the want of better expression PURC is sleeping on the job.”

This comes after the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), operators of the National Interconnected Transmission System, announced on Friday evening that there was a deficit in thermal power generation due to limited gas supply from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant (GPP), and the West African Gas Pipeline (WAPCo).

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), also in a release issued on Friday, July 7, apologised to consumers experiencing power cuts as a result of the situation.

Meanwhile, Ghana Gas in a press statement issued on Monday, also apologised to the public stating that they regret causing any inconvenience to cherished consumers.

“Ghana National Gas Limited Company’s policy of continuous improvement of our processes, enables us to strengthen our business as the strategic partner of the various power generation companies, serving the people of Ghana.”

However, Ghana Gas also indicated that the incident was caused by an upset of their on-site power generation system which led to a temporary shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant last Friday, and resulting in a shortage of gas supply to the power generating companies.

“This resulted in about 30% reduction in the gas we deliver to our downstream power and non-power customers. Our engineers and third-party contractors worked assiduously around the clock to restore normal operations in 5 hours.”

“During the 5-hour outage Ghana Gas made alternative arrangements for emergency mobile power generation units to enable natural gas to be transported to various power generation companies to mitigate the unexpected situation.”