Executive Director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye says the public needs more information about the power outages to plan their lives and adjust accordingly.

Mr. Boakye said that the recent power outages have been caused by a combination of factors, including the shutdown of some power plants and a shortage of fuel.

Speaking on JoyNews, he stated that some of the plants relied on by the country are unable to provide stable power because there is a shortage of fuel.

“Some of the plants are down and you should know, working with the engineers, what the timelines look like for them to come back on stream. So tell us what the timelines look like and let people plan their lives,” he said on February 29, 2024.

Mr Boakye pointed to a management crisis within the power sector.

 He said that the Energy Commission needs to ensure that all the systems are working properly, as any failure in one part of the system can affect the entire system which would result in power outages.

According to him, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), the company that manages the power grid, is not investing enough in updating and expanding the grid.

He stated that the growing population and development in the country is increasing the demand for power and in order to meet this growing demand, the government and GRIDCo need to make significant investments in expanding and strengthening the grid.

“If that investment is not happening, you will always have challenges and the tricks will keep happening and they don’t get the money to be able to sustain the investment in the grid.”

In addition, the executive director also stated that exports are being cut which is sustaining the state institutions.

 “So it is the export revenue that they use to pay salaries and survive and now that export revenue is not there because there is shortfall, they have to cut export and meet domestic demand so they don’t have money. The cash flow is impacted and that would affect GRIDCo and GRA even worse because they are not going to get the revenue they need to be as functional as we need them to be and that is a big problem,” he said.