[ 2019-03-15 ]

Power outages not “dumsor” – Amewu
Accra, March 15 GNA - Mr John Peter Amewu,
Minister of Energy has assured Ghanaians that the
recent power outages across parts of the country
are by no means the return of
“dumsor”.

According to him the government is working
assiduously to address the situation and also
ensure that the power system of Ghana functions
effectively.

“Let me state that the events that led to
challenges that the power system of Ghana
experienced are by no means the return of
“dumsor”. We are working assiduously
to address the situation”.

Mr Amewu gave the assurance when he briefed
parliament about the recent power disturbances
that occurred on the Ghana Power System on
Tuesday, March 12 and Wednesday March 13, 2019.

The Minority in Parliament has attributed the
recent power outages across the country to
liquidity challenges in the power sector and asked
government to be candid with Ghanaians and release
a load shedding timetable to help consumers plan
their activities.

According to the Minority the recent power outages
are a reflection of the financial troubles facing
the energy sector due to government’s
inability to clear its debt.

They claim there is a huge shortfall of 1,000
megawatts because the power sector is financially
bankrupt and that the country cannot pay for the
power it consumes.

Mr Amewu also explained that the power system
experienced a number of disturbances which
resulted in the interruption of power supply to
customers.

He said the main cause of the blackout was the
ongoing construction of the interchange at Pokuase
which necessitated the diversion of GRIDCOs 330kv
transmission lines that runs from Tema to
Aboadze.

This requires taking an outage of the entire line
to the central business district substation.

Mr Amewu also clarified that as a result of the
outage on the 330kv line, no power was transmitted
from Aboadze to Accra.

He said, instead, power has to be transmitted from
Akosombo through Mallam, Winneba and Cape Coast to
the western part of the country through the 161kv
transmission line.

These 161kv line became overloaded, thereby
causing it to trip as a protective measure to
avoid any major damage to the equipment.

He said the transmission lines across the country
are interconnected to the extent that disruption
in one transmission line has a ripping effect on
others.

He said the power plants are designed to
automatically shut down in response to hiccups in
the course of power transmission.

Mr Amewu further explained that it became
necessary to temporary shit and limit power flow
through the coastal corridor to facilitate
stability of the entire transmission network while
work is completed on the diversion of the line at
Pokuase.

“This issue is thus a pure operational and
technical challenge at the transmission stage, it
has nothing to do with technical faults at the
generation or distribution stage of the power
value chain” he added.

Source - GNA

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