President John Mahama has asked Ghanaians to keep calm over the current energy crisis since the situation is temporary.

The President is optimistic that the country "will have a more reliable power system after this phase".

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is set to release a timetable for power rationing this week as challenges with gas supply from Nigeria and expansion works at thermal plants in Takoradi have deepened the power supply deficit.

The President however revealed a third reason for the current load shedding:

"The TAPCO [Takoradi Power Company] plant is facing some mechanical failures. One of its rotor blades broke off and destroyed the engine and so VRA has ordered the parts to fix it. And so that has taken 145 megawatts out of our generation", he said.

According to him, some of the factors that has caused the current load shedding were "unforeseen acts that we couldn't have predicted".

The President was addressing members of the Grace Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church in the Western Region on his last day of his three-day working visit in that region.

Currently, the country has 1,650 megawatts of power capacity and the Ghana Grid Company projects peak demand to be 1,988 megawatts, hence the shortfall.