Power consumers in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, are expected to experience intermittent power cuts in the coming weeks as the Electricity Company of Ghana works to maintain power supply cables to the region.

Parts of the city have been plunged into darkness in the past few weeks, with some staying without power for close to 24 hours.

The power distribution company attributed the recent power outages to an overload of electricity supplies and overheating impacting some power distribution cables to the region.

Public Relations Officer for ECG-Ashanti West, Benjamin Obeng Antwi explains the increased temperature is compelling households to utilize more energy which exceeds the power capacity of the existing distribution lines.

“Once there is heat in the system, your consumption at home will be high. The heat contributes to the load growth,” he told David Akuetteh on Luv Fm.

The ECG in Ashanti region is expected to carry out planned maintenance on the distribution lines affected by the heat and subsequently change them for more uptake of power from the main distribution lines. 

“The sub-transmission has given a timeframe of 2 weeks to fix the problem. But it’s not as if Kumasi will experience power outages consistently but as and when they will be planned maintenance. Changing the cables is just one measure,” he said.

Mr. Obeng Antwi also indicated that the ECG is liaising with the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) to secure more transformers to upgrade power distribution to the region. 

“We are trying to get one of the 145MVA transformers at the Bulk Supply Points. The idea is to get one at Anwomaso and another at Ridge. The one at Anwomaso is likely to come up first and also the latest by the first quarter we should have the 145MVA in circuit. Once we have that we will be able to emit more power,” he said.