[ 2016-11-23 ]

There’ll be stable power during election period — ECG assures
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has rolled
out a contingency plan to ensure stable supply of
power during the December 7, 2017 general election
and beyond, the Managing Director of the company,
Mr Robert Dwamena, has said.
Under the plan, the company will deploy its
engineers to man all critical installations,
including the bulk supply points, primary
substation transformers and lines that will feed
constituency collation centres across the
country.

"Although we are guaranteeing reliable power
supply, there can sometimes be unforeseen or
unplanned outages and what is most important
during such outages is our rapid response,” Mr
Dwamena said.

In an interview in Accra yesterday, he said the
deployment of engineers to the strategic points
was important, “so that they can promptly
respond to emergencies to reduce the intervention
time to the barest minimum”.

Additionally, he explained that the ECG, in
collaboration with the Ministry of Power, would
provide solar facilities, including solar lamps
and pole-mounted solar illumination, at all the
polling stations on election day.

Furthermore, the ECG would make available
generators that would serve as back-up in case of
any unforeseen outages, he said.

Installed capacity

Currently, the country has a total installed
capacity of 3,644 megawatts (MW) which can meet
the national demand which is usually at a peak
level of about 2,000MW.

The installed capacity is from hydro power from
the Volta River Authority (VRA), Independent Power
Producers (IPPs) and other power generation
plants.

Ghana goes to the polls to elect a President and
275 Members of Parliament on December 7, 2016.

The elections, which start at 7 a.m. and end at 5
p.m., will require electricity to recharge the
biometric machines that will be used on election
day, while voting centres will need light during
the counting of the ballot papers.

The issue of stable electric power supply during
the elections has, therefore, become crucial.

Enough power

Mr Dwamena gave an assurance that ECG engineers
would work “extra hard to ensure that
electricity is available to all consumers”,
saying: “There is enough power to meet the
demands of customers.”

At the National Collation Centre in Accra, he
said, the ECG would make available a heavy-duty
mobile generating set as back-up.

“We believe that with all these measures being
put in place, we are going to have very reliable
and stable power supply during this very crucial
national event,” he said.

Public to be on lookout

Despite the measures put in place, including ECG
engineers patrolling the company's installations
on the day of the election, he urged the public to
be on the lookout for any suspicious persons
loitering around ECG facilities and report such
characters to the nearest police stations or call
the ECG Call Centre on 0302611611 to avert any
untoward situation.

All ECG staff members, he said, could be
identified by their cards which they were required
to carry as a form of identification.

Mr Dwamena explained that the recent power outages
had nothing to do with generation shortfalls but
rather distribution-related challenges.

He said the company would soon complete its
planned maintenance works and the replacement of
its weak links to ensure that the systems would be
stable.

Source - Graphiconline

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