The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has reported the power distributor, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), to the sector minister for the latter’s failure to comply with a load management plan.
In a letter addressed to the Minister sighted by 3News, the systems manager indicated, amongst other things, that ECG on several occasions failed to adhere to the load management advice from the System Control Centre (SCC) of GRIDCo.
“We note with grave concern the repeated instances where Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Operations personnel fail to follow load management instructions issued by the SCC. This non-compliance poses a significant threat to the stability of the power grid, potentially leading to avoidable power outages for customers and system collapse.”
“The SCC routinely communicates load management directives to ECG Operations. However, these instructions are often either not effected or inadequately implemented,” the letter added.
This, according to GRIDCo, results in a “decline in system frequency, triggering the operation of the Automatic Frequency Load Shedding (AFLS) relays,” adding that “SCC has to disconnect feeders serving bulk customers to correct the decaying frequency.”
GRIDCo cited March 20 and 21 instances where the system manager had to take off Tema and Tafo feeders which resulted in a system drop to “critical levels.”
“March 21, 2024, 07:59h: The SCC had to take Tafo feeders out of service due to ECG’s failure to properly implement load management instructions. This resulted in a system frequency drop to a critical level of 49.47 Hz.”
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“March 20, 2024, Peak Hours: Similar non-compliance by ECG operations during peak hours forced the SCC to disconnect feeders in Tema, Winneba, Kasoa, and Kumasi. This action was taken to prevent system collapse after the frequency dropped to a concerning 49.29 Hz,” the letter explained.
GRIDCo further noted that “when these emergency disconnections occur, ECG publishes customer notices attributing the loss of power supply to GRIDCo,” stating that such an attribution “is not an accurate description of the current situation.”
It maintained that the ECG’s disregard for load management instructions is “a clear violation of the regulations of L.I. 1934, Article 9.b and the National Electricity Grid Code, Article 10.84.”