Energy Minister dispels claims of return to ‘dumsor’

Energy Minister Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has dispelled suggestions of a return to the days of constant power outages, also know as ‘dumsor’, following erratic power supply in the last few days.

After last Sunday’s nationwide blackout, the Ghana Grid Company Limited, (GridCo) explained it was due to a challenge in the power system.

Government has since come under intense criticism with several power consumers expressing outrage over the situation, especially with a few reports of similar episodes in parts of Accra on Monday.

A former Director of Public Affairs at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Nana Yaa Jantuah, wants government to come clean on the country’s current power situation.

“If there are challenges let us know. The generation of electricity is very expensive and we have to increase tariffs, make sure we do what we have to do and increase it so that we get power,” she said.

But the Energy Minister says GRIDCo’s explanations should suffice.

Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh told JoyNews “I’m not sure it [the power outages] keeps recurring. GRIDCo has explained why the blackout was happening.”

“GRIDCo never blamed us and took responsibility for what happened, that there were system failures they couldn’t do anything about,” he told Kwesi Parker-Wilson.

Meanwhile, the PURC says it is yet to receive any official complaint about the erratic power supply to begin investigations.