The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says Ghana will suffer interrupted power supply for the next two to six months. ECG says the development has been necessitated by the unavailability of upgraded facilities and equipment at its various plants across the country. The company also says the capacity required to produce the needed electricity to power the nation has been negatively affected as a result. The ECG made this known at a joint press conference with the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) in Accra. The announcement comes days after the Energy Minister, Dr. Oteng Agyei dismissed fears of many Ghanaians that the 2006/2007 days of load shedding were crawling back. At the first ever meet-the-press series in the Atta Mills administration, Dr. Oteng Agyei said government has secured over US$169 million under the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project to improve distribution of electricity across the country. An additional $350 million loan facility, he said had been secured from the US Exim Bank for the extension of electricity to over 1,000 rural communities throughout the country. Addressing the Press conference, the Managing Director of ECG, Mr Jude Adu Amankwah said the 7-8% growth rate in the demand of electricity in the country meant that Ghana had to double its capacity of electricity production to meet the demand. This, he said, was however not the current situation prevailing in the country. He also noted that the supply networks across the country were constantly overloaded, explaining that the monitoring systems automatically turned off the electricity supply to prevent damage to the equipment. According to him, the needed upgrades in the equipment at the stations could rectify the problem. He lamented also the weak transmission systems that were operational across the country that were running on obsolete equipment but said the company was doing all it could to rectify the situation. Mr. Adu Amankwah was however quick to say that some donor agencies and countries had come to the aid of the ECG in the past and said he looked forward to more support to sustain the electricity supply in the country. He expressed his appreciation to the Ghana Energy Development Access project (GEDAP) for aid close to USD 94m, the French government for aid close to Euro 65m and the Norwegian government for aid in the range of Euro 55m. The Volta River Authority (VRA) on its part said though the total energy demand in the country was expected to be 9,152,000,000 units for 2009, it is currently more than ready to generate the needed capacity to meet the demand. The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) on its part said it acknowledged the 20th April incident was a rare one and promised to ensure continuous maintenance of the National Interconnected Transmission System to improve energy supply in the country. Source: citifmonline.com