Power crisis could worsen – ACEP

The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye, has asked people to brace themselves for more power outages in the coming days.

According to him, the shortfall in the supply of gas for power plants has still not been fixed.

Mr. Boakye also revealed that politicians were controlling the procurement of gas for thermal plants and siphoning the resources that could help keep the power on.

“If the government buys fuel today, we can have the power running. We can have the lights on. But it is not sustainable for the government to be doing that.

“It is not sustainable for us to be sacrificing the budget to be paying for the fuel. Even if we were going to give the fuel to ECG and they guaranteed that they would sell the power and recover the money, it wouldn’t be a problem,” he revealed on Joy News on March 16.

The country has been inundated by recent power outages, which pose an enormous threat to businesses and individuals.

There have been widespread calls from civil society organisations and the opposition NDC for a load-shedding timetable so that Ghanaians could plan their daily activities.

However, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says there is no need for a load-shedding timetable.

Rather, the power company has informed the public of outages between 7 pm and 11 pm due to operational challenges.

In a statement dated Monday, March 11, 2024, the company said 630 distribution transformers within communities in its operational areas were at full capacity due to increased demand.

ECG said this may result in blown fuses and broken conductors, causing cuts at peak load hours (7 pm – 11 pm) in the affected areas.

However, the electricity supplier assured the public that efforts were being made to solve the issue.