Ghana says no power cut during election
The power utility companies in Ghana on Monday assured the public that there would be no planned load shedding during the election period.
Speaking at a meeting between the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and ECG, VRA and GRIDCo, on the topic, “reliable power supply before, during and after the 7th December elections”, the representatives said they were confident that the plans instituted would ensure adequate power supply for the election.
Mr Kweku Awotwi, Chief Executive Officer, Volta River Authority, said beginning Wednesday December 5, 2012 up to the time the votes are counted and results declared there will be adequate and stable power generation.
He said all the generating units at Akosombo and Kpong will run throughout the period, generating a total of 1,050 mega watts while the thermal plants at Tema and Takoradi will also be operating at their full capacity adding that all diesel plants will be available as standby for emergency purposes.
Mr Awotwi said VRA had also agreed on a power supply plan with Cote d’Ivoire to supply additional power to the country when required adding that a delegation was already there to seal the deal for the supply of about 100 mega watts.
He said in the interim, VRA would reduce the amount of power supplied to Togo and Benin to 10 mega watts to make way for more power during the period.
Mr George Coleman, Chief Technician Engineer, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), gave the assurance that all transmission lines would be in service throughout the period while planned outages and planned maintenance activities would be suspended.
He said all the sub-stations would be physically manned and communication lines opened and easily accessible.
In addition, he said, there would be an agreed programme with the industries that in case there is any emergency, they should be the first to be taken off the grid.
Mr Tetteh Okyne, Director of Operations Electricity Company of Ghana, said contingency plans would be put in place to manage unplanned outages or faults.
He said ECG, with the assistance of the district assemblies, will collaborate with the Electoral Commission to ensure that there were standby generators at all national and regional collation centres to deal with any outages during the period.
Besides, there would be well-equipped teams to attend to any emergencies that may arise during the period.
Mr Samuel Sarpong, Acting Executive Secretary PURC, assured Ghanaians that the Commission would effectively monitor the power delivery situation to ensure that the utilities abide by the commitments they had made to the public.
Source: GNA