Deputy Minister of Energy, Andrew Egyapa Mercer says the current power interruptions witnessed in the country is not the same "dumsor" experienced prior to the assumption of office of the Akufo-Addo-led administration.

According to Mr Mercer, the issue of "dumsor" was resolved in 2017 when the NPP government assumed power.

Discussing the state of the country's energy sector with host, George Wiafe, on PM Express Business Edition, the Deputy Minister noted that what many have misconstrued as the return of dumsor is power outages in some localized areas.

"… what pertained between 2012 and 2016 was a situation where we didn't have the money to buy fuel to power our plants. We went into a prolonged power outage for 4 years but this 'dumsor' as you like, is really as a result of works that were ongoing at the Pokuase and Kasoa Bulk Supply Points.

"Yesterday, the President commissioned the Pokuase Bulk Supply Point and that was important because of the nature of the work. Power is taken off for humans who were working on those lines to be able to work on the interconnection. Dumsor has been over since 2017. Between 2017 till date, government has made the resources available to pay for the fuel to power our plants, that is why dumsor has been over since 2017," he said on Thursday.

His comments come at a time when some parts of Accra are experiencing power outages.

According to the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), the power outages that commenced on October 5, is to enable them to execute “planned works” within the Achimota – Mallam corridors for the decommissioning and replacement of existing lines with new higher-capacity conductors.

Work is expected to come to an end on December 5, this year.

In reaction to the scheduled outage, the Deputy Sector Minister stated that there are ongoing works to address issues in some areas and not a means to ration electricity supply nationwide.

"It is not the case that this is a national program that is being run or is intended to ration electricity across the country. I'm saying that we are working on the system continuously. ECG and GRIDCo are working but the nature of the works they are carrying out is such that it would not lead to a national power outage schedule but localized ones that are necessary to fix the problems within those specific localities."

Meanwhile, Mr Andrew Egyapa Mercer says the newly commissioned Pokuase Bulk Supply Point is the biggest in the country.

The Member of Parliament for Sekondi Constituency noted that following its operation, residents in the area have confirmed that the supply of electricity has improved significantly.

The Deputy Energy Minister assured of government's commitment to driving an economy that is based on industrialization, hence the need to make power available.

"Making power available to the consumer to drive our industrial agenda is non-negotiable. That is why consistently between 2017 till date, we have the kind of situation that ensures power is available for the consuming public."

"Because we are continuing to renew our transmission network which is some 50 years plus old, there ought to be some new systems that are being built. That is going to continue and at every point where that program is ongoing and the need arises for power to be taken off for those interconnections to be done, that will be done.

"But that regular maintenance works that would be necessary to be done on the transmission line, that is not the situation we experienced between 2012 and 2016, where obviously we had generation capacity but just could not provide electricity for our people," he added.