The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says the resumption of gas supply by Nigeria will not have any significant effect on the energy crisis in Ghana as most of the country’s thermal plants are down either undergoing maintenance works or expansion works.
The Company last week had to withdraw an earlier guide to the emergency loadshedding exercise to factor in the deficit that was created by the cut in gas supply from Nigeria resulting from labour unrests in Itoki in Nigeria’s Ogun State.
“Because we don’t have any reserve margin, anytime there is shutdown it translates into deficit for us to undertake a loadshedding,” William Mensah, the Public Relations Officer of the Company, told TV3’s Sandra Amarquaye in an interview on Monday.
He explained that without recourse to the resumption of gas supply from Nigeria, the Company came out with a guide that puts off-peak outage at 6:00am to 8:00pm, contrary to the previous 6:00am to 6:00pm.
“We have added the two hours to give space for the engineers who are doing the switching,” Mr Mensah explained.
He said switching gadgets on at peak periods involves high risks and so the engineers asked for “more room” to switch back power without any repercussions.
He assured that there will be a review of the guide at the end of next month, expressing the hope that by then most of the plants would be back in operation to add on to the needed margin.
According to ECG’s PRO for Accra West, Eric Asante, resumption of gas flow from the West African pipeline is not a panacea to load shedding.
The Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, says it has complied with the PURC directive to draw a time table for its load shedding programme.
Confirming this to Radio Ghana, the ECG’s PRO for Accra West, Eric Asante, said customers will experience a 12 hour power interruption at least four times a week.
He was quick to add that the situation may change depending on some factors.
Mr Asante indicated that the ECG in collaboration with Energy Commission has drawn up outreach programmes to educate the public on electricity conservation.
Mr Asante noted that the resumption of gas flow from the West African pipeline is not a panacea to load shedding.
He said gas flow is a gradual process.
He was hopeful that the problem will be rectified in the not too distant future when Ghana’s gas starts flowing and the Asogli and Aboadze thermal plants are working at full capacity.
