The Electricity Company of Ghana is set to commence transmission line upgrade works, which will see improvements in power supply in the Ashanti region.

Work on the 33Kv Line Upgrade project, which will take about 11 weeks to complete, is being undertaken by an Indian firm, Arvensis Energy Private Limited.

It will see the upgrade of the line from Ridge BSP through Kaase Substation to the Electricity Company of Ghana Boadi Substation.

Officials of ECG, led by Ing. Eugene Nyanor, Manager Network Maintenance, Ashanti Sub-Transmission, and the contractors, met and updated the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, on the project, which, when completed, will reinforce the lines with the necessary capacity to wheel more power to improve supply reliability in the region.

According to Ing. Nyanor, the project will include an upgrade of 265mm² conductors to 400mm² conductors to generate more power to improve supply reliability.

It would also see one-phase cables being doubled per phase to improve capacity and the erection of galvanized steel towers.

Though the upgrade work is expected to inconvenience residents in regular power supply, Ing Nyanor says this will be managed to the satisfaction of the general public.

“Wherever we anticipate an outage, our PRO will go on air to announce it ahead of time. And then we want to add that, the Energy Minister, Honourable Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has shown much interest in this project,” he said.

Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, is upbeat about the prospects of the project, and has assured ECG and the contractor of the support of the Regional Coordinating Council to make the project a success.

“This is an important project, and we are happy that it is coming around this time because during the month, if nothing changes, I am very sure the Ameri Plant would also be commissioned.

“If that one is also commissioned, that one is also commissioned, and that would also add up to the efforts that you are making to stabilize the power situation in the region,” he said.